Tatas preparing plan for Nano relocation

Nano

Kolkata: With no hopes of the stalemate ending in Singur, Tatas on Tuesday said it was considering shifting the low-cost Nano car project from West Bengal to some other State, on which a decision may be taken any time.

The decision on a possible shift of site was taken at a meeting of the Tata Motors management committee on Tuesday, a day after Ratan Tata arrived from Singapore and took stock of the situation arising out of Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's siege of the Singur facility, sources said.

"In view of the current situation, the company is evaluating alternate options for manufacturing the Nano car at other company facilities and a detailed plan to relocate the plant and machinery to alternate site is under preparation," the company said in a statement.

"To minimise the impact it may have on the recently recruited and trained people from West Bengal, the company is exploring the possibility of absorbing them at its other plant locations," it said.

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Tatas' threat comes at a time when a number of states including Maharashtra, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Uttarakhand are wooing them to set up the facility.

Tata Motors had evacuated its entire workforce from the Singur facility on Thursday last week in the face of numerous instances of intimidation from protesters at the site.

Moving out of Singur could hit West Bengal hard in terms of future investment at a time when the CPI(M)-led government is vigorously pursuing foreign and domestic investors and taking on Trinamool Congress in a bid to retain Tatas.

India Inc, led by Mukesh Ambani, had categorically warned that withdrawal of Tatas due to political obstacles would hit hard the country's industrialisation and investment inflows.

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"Tata Motors has been constrained to suspend the construction and commissioning work at the Nano plant in Singur in view of continued confrontation and agitation at the site," the company said.

A total investment of Rs 1,500 crore has been envisaged for the project that stipulated rolling out Rs 1 lakh car by October. It, however, has been mired into controversy right from its inception with Mamata Banerjee demanding return of 400 acres out of a total 1000 acres land leased out to Tatas by the state government.

Ratan Tata had last month warned that the project would be shifted out of the state in case violence persisted at the Singur plant.

The decision to look for alternate options was taken at a management committee comprising company Managing Director Ravi Kant, CFO C Ramakrishnan and Nano project head Girish Wagh, besides group Chairman Ratan Tata, sources added.

The company said the decision has been taken to ensure the safety of its employees and contract labour who have continued to violently obstructed from reporting to work.

The project's auto ancillary partners were also constrained to suspend the work in line with Tata Motors' decision, it added.

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