Tata Motors on Thursday said it will have talks with the West Bengal government on the Singur land when the Nano factory was originally slated to come up, a day after state principal industry Secretary Sabyasachi Sen said the world's smallest car would be made there.
Tata Motors will distribute all Nano cars from Pantnagar through its new subsidiary, Tata Motors Distribution
Zahir Haq lost his farmland to the Nano factory, but still applied for a car, when bookings for the Tata Motors Rs 1 lakh car opened at Singur on April 9. And he is not alone: an appreciable number of Singur residents booked the Nano through the bank branches in the area, with the State Bank of India branch as the nodal point.
Some of the biggest and the best component suppliers in the business were roped in, with scissors and ingenuity to bring out solutions within a specified cost structure.
The plea for return of land has been made under the new Singur land Rehabilitation and Development Act enacted by the West Bengal government.
Tata Group head Ratan Tata said on Tuesday he has set higher ambitions for the Nano car which will be available in more variants, including diesel and electric versions.
In view of the expected significant demand and limited production capacity initially until the Sanand plant is fully ramped up to capacity, the Tata Nano will be available through a booking mode.
The truth is that this is an impressive realisation of a corporate vision, a car long-promised, designed explicitly to hit a price point, and one that will meet the needs of poorer consumers. It is safer than a bicycle and cleaner than an old moped.
In 2006-07, TCS had employed 7,000 people in the eastern states.
Among other things, Ratan Tata also said, 'All I can say at the moment is that the project is highly profitable. After all, I am not doing it for philanthropy.'
Recently, another version of the Nano, one with a compressed-natural-gas engine, was launched.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Sunday night formally announced suspension of the 15-day indefinite dharna, saying a final agreement has been arrived at by the West Bengal government on the Singur issue."Since the government has found a formula for the solution of the Singur issue officially, I am suspending the dharna," she said from the dharna manch, addressing a big gathering of cheering party supporters.She thanked Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said it was a 'moral victory' after the Supreme Court asked Tata Motors to make its stand clear on its leasehold rights on the land at Singur as it had moved its car plant out of the state.
Nano, the small car from the Tatas, is projected to become India's second best selling car next year, according to market research firm JD Power.
Tata Motors' planned vendor park at its 1,100-acre Nano project site in Gujarat may be delayed by at least six months, triggering speculation among suppliers of a delay in the Nano project. The delay is mainly on account of global recession, which has slowed down demand for vehicles, according to Rajkot-based suppliers.
In 2008, the companies had planned a tripartite joint venture entity that would build and sell a $3,000 (about Rs 1.4 lakh) competitor to Tata Motors' Nano, the world's cheapest car. Bajaj was to have a 50 per cent stake, with Renault and Nissan having 25 per cent each.
Infosys, the country's third largest software firm, on Thursday said it was undecided on going ahead with investment plans in West Bengal, where socio-political opposition has thrown Tata Motors' Nano project into uncertainty.
Bajaj Auto Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj said the company has, in partnership with Renault-Nissan, developed India's most fuel efficient and least-polluting car engine.
With hundreds of new industries setting shop at Pantnagar, just a stone's throw away, the economic impact is quite discernible in Rudrapur, the district headquarters of Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar district. And now that Tata Motors is said to be gearing up to launch the first Nano from Pantnagar, there is fresh excitement in the area. The business community here is ready to give a red carpet welcome to Nano.
The country's second largest two-wheeler maker Bajaj Auto Ltd (BAL) on Monday joined hands with Renault-Nissan to launch a small car in India by 2011 that will compete with Tata Motors' Nano on price point - Rs 1 lakh.
Tata Motors' Nano, the world's cheapest car that costs slightly more than some premium bikes available in the country, is unlikely to wean away buyers from the two-wheeler segment, an industry official said on Friday. "I don't ascribe to the idea that the introduction of low priced cars in the market will affect the two-wheeler segment," S Balasubramanian, executive vice-president for operations & marketing, TVS, Srichakra Ltd said.
We find out how the Nano factory has changed Sanand, from a sleepy village to a town bustling with activity and development.
Leading vendors of the Tata Motors' Nano project intend to set the ball rolling to return their land in the ancillary park area at Singur and said they aim to begin talks with the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation on the issue immediately.
Rakesh Oberoi, a Tata Motors dealer, said he was getting hundreds of enquiries related to Nano everyday. Tata Motors was given over 950 acres of prime land by the state government at Pantnagar for setting up its manufacturing facility.
The Nano price point would see a 65 per cent increase in the number of families that can afford a car.
The cheap-car tag fades with every new variant, Tata Motors inches towards taking on other city cars.
The Nano's mileage is being projected between 17 to 20 km per litre. Last month, Tata Motors had conducted various test runs of Nano on the hilly, serpentine roads of Uttarakhand. Government officials in Dehra Dun claimed the company has given a commitment to Uttarakhand Chief Minister B C Khanduri that it would roll out the first Nano from the state itself.
The wait for the world's cheapest car could soon be over as Tata Motors could commence limited commercial production of the Rs 100,000 Nano from alternate locations so that the first car could roll out towards the end of March 2009 from Pantnagar till the mother plant came up in Sanand near Ahmedabad.
Singur divided between those who want Tata back and those who just want their land.
The supply of Tata Motors' much-awaited small car, the Nano, is going to be well below the demand for quite some months.
Banks make criteria tougher for funding the car. Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata's dream to help the common man own a four-wheeler may meet its bete noire in bankers as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and rival lenders realign rules to finance the Nano, touted to be the world's cheapest car.
The new plant at Sanand will be inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata, who seven years ago dreamt of making an affordable family car for the common man. Spread over an area of about 1,100 acres, the new facility has been created at the cost of approximately Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion).
The speech, short, crisp and delivered with feeling, saw Tata take head-on all the criticism targeted at him and Tata Motors in the four years that the car was under development. It ended on a triumphant note as Tata emphasised that he had delivered on his promise to provide a car that was more affordable than any other in the world.
The car is expected to be powered by 800cc to 1 litre engine.
Based on the Tata Nano, the TataPixel - at just over three metres in length - is the most package efficient four-seater in the world.
The Tata Europa is a jazzed-up version of the Nano that we got to see at the Auto Expo in India last year, but there are some important changes.
Call it the "Nano effect" but less than a month after Tata Motors displayed its competitively-priced small car at the Delhi auto show, prices in the 1.3-million used-car market crashed 15 to 30 per cent, if not more.
Though most people expected Tata Motors to select either Andhra Pradesh or Karnataka for its Nano project, it was clear that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had done the impossible and coming from nowhere bagged the prestigious project.
To begin with, the Indigo CS and the Indica Dicor are available right now, and since we last drove either car, there have been improvements.
Rs 1,199 spread comfortably across 84 months or 7 years. The rate of interest is 11-11.5 per cent, which is cheaper than a two wheeler loan.
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