Scrapping of old vehicles is set to unturn a new pool of metals and rubber to help bring sustainability in the industries by recycling and reusing it. This also reduces India's import dependence for metals and rubber believes Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari. He was recently speaking at the CII-ITC Sustainability Awards in New Delhi.

During the programme he also held that there is a need to develop indigenous new technologies with respect to energy, and electric highways and using wastelands from mining activities in a sustainable way.

Commenting on the implementation of the vehicle scrapping policy aimed at recycling older two and four wheelers, Gadkari said, "We have started scrapping policy. There are already a lot of imports of aluminium and copper. Now we don't need to import. The circulation of economy is important".

He added that aluminium, copper, steel, rubber, and plastic can be recycled to reduce the cost of automobile components by 20-25 per cent.

It is estimated that India imports metals worth roughly $ 34.7 billion annually. China, South Korea, Japan, United Arab Emirates, and United States are the top five sources of metals imports into India.

During his speech, Gadkari reiterated that the logistic cost in India is around 14-16% of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). "By new roads and changes in fuel, our target is to reduce it to 9%. This will increase our exports and is an opportunity for India", he said.

Reflecting on the changing global scenario, Gadkari said that businesses now prefer India for investments as compared with other countries.