CHENNAI: India is exploring global funds and prioritising lending for compressed biogas (CBG) projects, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Tuesday, as the country looks to reduce its crude imports and increase its use of cleaner fuels.

“We are also exploring global funds to fund CBG projects,” Pradhan said at the inauguration of a biogas plant in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

India plans to invest $24 billion to produce 15 million tonnes of compressed biogas from 5,000 plants by 2023, and wants bio-manure, a byproduct, to contribute to the growth of organic farming.

“A new package for medium and small scale enterprises shall also assist to fund CBG plants across India,” Pradhan said on Tuesday.

In the north, India wants to build biogas plants where crop stubble can be used a feedstock in a bid to halt the choking crop-burning pollution that blights the country every winter.

A major source of the smog that engulfs vast swathes of northern India, including the capital New Delhi, is the burning of straw and stubble of the previous rice crop to prepare for new planting in October and November.