The scheme has been extended to all categories of employees.
Tata Motors is negotiating with the Jharkhand government to acquire 300 acres of land to set up a vendor park on the lines of the one in Pantnagar (Uttar Pradesh), a senior company official said.
Tata Motors was allotted 1,000 acres of prime agriculture land at the Pantnagar industrial estate in the hope that the company would set up its dream Nano project in Uttarakhand. It has now agreed in principle to allot 50 acres more to the auto giant. Tata Motors is seeking 100 acres for housing purposes. Meanwhile, suspense continues over the Nano project being shifted to the hill state.
Even as Tata Motors is racing against time to get its new Singur plant near Kolkata ready for commercial roll-out of the Nano by October 2008, the company may need an out-of-the-box solution to overcome some delays in the integrated plant and component park structure proposed for the vehicle.
The B C Khanduri government seems to be in no hurry to provide concession on lease rent as well as some more land to Tata Motors at the Pantnagar industrial estate.
The cabinet approved the auto major's demand to lower the rent from Rs 5 per sq metre to Rs 1 per sq metre.
The company had got 100,000 bookings in the first phase.
The new obsession on cost control is powered by the company's 'GEAR' (Generate idea, evaluate, action and realise the idea) programme.
Tata Motors' Pantnagar facility sent its first consignment of the world's cheapest car, Nano to Hyderabad.
Tata Motors' plans to roll out the first of its Rs 1-lakh (Rs 100,000) small car, the Nano, from Uttarakhand, were boosted today after a high-powered state government committee under Chief Minister B C Khanduri allotted it nearly 45 acres of land to expand the Pantnagar unit.
Unlikely to follow Pune model where a bifurcated package had a portion of pay linked to performance
"Tata Motors has given us a commitment that it will set up a permanent satellite facility at Pantnagar for producing Nanos," said Chief Secretary Indu Kumar Pande. From the Pantnagar industrial unit, from where the company would launch its first car, Tata Motors is planning to produce a total of 50,000 units per year. Besides, it has agreed to distribute all its Nano cars from Pantnagar through its new subsidiary, Tata Motors Distribution Co Ltd.
The car so far known by the code name 'Kite' will be a hatchback.
Official sources said that top company officials recently met Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri and demanded 35 acres of additional land for expanding the facility. Earlier, the company had sought 55 acres of land at Pantnagar for housing purpose. The government is yet to take a decision in this regard.
Tata Motors owns 1,000 acres in this rapidly industrialising town in the prosperous terai region of the state. About 30 per cent of it is learnt to be vacant.
Tata Motors will distribute all Nano cars from Pantnagar through its new subsidiary, Tata Motors Distribution
"Tata Motors officials have conveyed to us that they are thinking of setting up a small permanent production unit of Nano in Pantnagar," Chief Secretary I K Pande said. The Tata Motors spokesperson said, "It is Tata Motors's view that, even after the mother plant at Sanand becomes operational, Tata Motors will continue to manufacture a certain volume of the Nano at Pantnagar. We do not have any other information to share."
The state government has been lobbying the central government for continuation of these incentives.
"We have no function at our manufacturing plant," said a Tata Motors official from its Pantnagar facility from where it was rolled out one year ago.
Several companies, including Tata Motors and Bajaj Auto, which are setting up units in Uttarakhand, want to buy more land amid reports that plots comprising an area of 300 acres are still lying vacant in the key industrial estates of Haridwar.
People in the hilly town of Gopeshwar in Chamoli district were recently surprised to see the Nano, Tata Motors' controversial Rs 100,000 car, parked on a roadside.
Uttarakhand government has written to Tata Motors, asking the auto major to sell a majority of the Nano cars through its new subsidiary, Tata Motors Distribution Co Limited, which was recently floated at Pantnagar. Through the sale of the Nano cars and other commercial vehicles which are being manufactured at Pantnagar, the state government is hoping to earn additional tax collections of Rs 100 crore to Rs 200 crore through a 12 percent VAT.
In Uttarakhand, the speculation is rife that Bajaj-Renault is trying to explore the possibility of the small car establishment at various places including the industrial hub of Pantnagar.
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.
Tata Motors on Monday announced that the Tata Nano Standard version (BS2) will be priced at Rs 1 lakh (Rs 100,000) ex Factory Pantnagar (excluding transportation charges and VAT) thereby delivering on the promise made at the unveiling of the car at the Auto Expo in New Delhi last year on January 10th 2008.
Names of the 100,000 customers who have been finalised for allotment of the Nano through the computerised procedure were announced by the company last month.
The supply of Tata Motors' much-awaited small car, the Nano, is going to be well below the demand for quite some months.
The company had started test runs for engines at its Pune facility in September after it work was stopped indefinitely at its Singur plant from August 29, leading to the abandoning of the Singur project site on October 3.
While the Nano is priced at Rs 1.12 lakh, Bajaj Auto's RE petrol variant costs about Rs 90,000, while its diesel variant is pegged at Rs 1.2 lakh. Analysts also say Bajaj can drop prices without any problem. "Bajaj Auto has been in the three-wheeler segment for 60 years. Which means their plants are fully depreciated and they can afford to lower the prices, which other manufacturers can't do," says a top executive from a competing three-wheeler brand.
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.
Automaker to shift 200-300 workers from its Pantnagar facility to handle increased manufacturing.
Unprecedented rains and floods in the northern region in the past few days have not only caused extensive damage to lives and property but have also impacted business and commercial establishments. Vegetable prices have gone through the roof in the national capital and many other parts of the country since rains started pouring earlier this month. Traders say vegetable prices would come down only after roads open and skies clear, even as water in the fields will take time to recede.
Striking workers lacked support in the Pimpri-Chinchwad-Chakan belt.
Property markets in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, which have had a dream run in recent years, are set to face a downturn.
