Nitin Gadkari: Collect urine, turn it into urea to end import

NAGPUR: Union minister for transport and Ganga rejuvenation, Nitin Gadkari, known for his passion for innovations and disruptive technology, is gung-ho about his “out-of-the-box” idea to end the country’s urea imports — turn urine into urea.

At a gathering of young innovators at the Mayor Innovation Awards event on Sunday, Gadkari said outside-the-box ideas often found no takers. “If all the urine we produce is collected, enough urea can be produced and we can stop importing urea for our farming needs,” the minister said. On a lighter note, he said each bottle could fetch Rs 4.

A few years ago, the Nagpur MP had said he stored his own urine and used it as fertiliser for his garden . “I’ve suggested urine be stored at airports. We import urea but if we start storing urine of entire country then we will not need to import urea. It has so much potential, nothing will be wasted. People do not cooperate because all my ideas are too fantastic,” the minister said.

Gadkari remained unavailable for comments on Monday. On innovation, he also gave the example of use of amino acid extracted from human hair waste, which can be used as a fertilizer. “It boosted production at farms by 25%,” said Gadkari. Because he could not get adequate hair in Nagpur, he had to purchase “five truckloads of hair” from Tirupati (where devotees offer their hair) every month, the Union minsiter said.

Former vice-chancellor of Nagpur University VS Sapkal, who is a chemical engineer, endorsed Gadkari’s urea-from-urine plans.