BANGALORE: Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata's dream is to see cars run on water and he has invested USD 15 million in a start-up firm supporting research in the field, an eminent scientist said today.

Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Prof C N R Rao said one of his close friends and a professor in the famed Massechusetts Institute of Technology in the US has found a way to split water directly into hydrogen and oxygen.

" Ratan Tata has given him (the Professor) 15 million (US) dollars so that he (Tata) can own that company when it comes up," Prof Rao said.

"He (Tata) wants to invest in a company which will split water directly into hydrogen and oxygen," Rao said, adding, when any kind of water -- toilet water, rain water or sea water -- can split to hydrogen and oxygen, then these components can be used for energy.

"And a dream of Ratan Tata is eventually cars will be run on water. My dream is also that," he said, referring to a recent conversation he had with the Tata Group Chairman.

Rao spoke on this initiative during a press conference convened by the Chemical Research Society of India to give details of the organization's planned activities in 2011, an year which had been declared as the "International Year of Chemistry" by the United Nations.