Legacy derailed
With the West Bengal Transport Minister, Snehasish Chakraborty, announcing, in end-September, the virtual closure of trams, Kolkata’s heritage transport system is now facing an existential crisis.
Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari said that if urine can be stored at airports, India can avoid import of urea.
Gadkari made the suggestion at a gathering at the Mayor Innovation Awards function of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation on Sunday.
“I have asked for storage of urine at airports. We import urea, but if we start storing urine of entire country then we will not need to import urea,” he said.
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“It has so much potential, and nothing will be wasted,” the minister added.
He told the gathering that human urine can be useful for making a bio-fuel and it can also yield ammonium sulfate and nitrogen.
Gadkari reportedly said that others do not cooperate with him because “all my ideas are fantastic”.
“Even the (municipal) corporation will not help, because in government, people are trained to be like (blinkered) bulls who walk in the rut, not looking here and there.”
Gadkari had a few years ago said that he stores his own urine to make his own fertiliser.
Speaking at the function, he also gave the example of use of amino acid extracted from human hair waste, which can be used as a fertiliser.
It boosted production at his farms by 25 per cent, he claimed.
Because he could not get adequate hair in Nagpur, he had to purchase “five trucks of hair” from Tirupati (where devotees shave their head which are later sold) every month, Mr Gadkari said.
“We are selling amino acid abroad and have order of about 180 containers of bio-fertiliser from the Dubai government,” the Union minister, who controls Purti Group of Industries, said.
India has a total of 137 airports under the Airports Authority of India (AAI).
A 2018 report published by the Hindustan Times had revealed that at least 25 of the 50 busiest airports in India were operating beyond their capacity. With the aviation industry growing at an unanticipated 18-20 per cent every year, the airports were expected to reach optimal capacity in 2018-19.
(With PTI inputs.)
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