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Tata’s Nano car seeks a new home for manufacturing as Singur plan backfires – Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, and Orissa spur over getting Nano
Tata Motors never thought Nano could turn into macro problem. Singur has demonstrated the failure of a strange coalition between Indian industrialists like Tata and the communists. The land allocation by the West Bengal Government was faulty right from the beginning. You just cannot steal lands from the supporters from opposition party and reallocate then Indian industrialists to manufacture Nano or Macro, whatever it may be!
Maharashtra today tried to lure Tata Motors’ project to make Nano, even as West Bengal, its current host, fought to retain it with an “alternative plan” that may secure 300 acres allotted a few years ago to a food park project. Uttarakhand and Orissa have already shown interest in the project.
Orissa industry minister Biswa Bhushan Harichandan added, “If the Tata group comes forward with a proposal, we will consider it favourably.”
The Tata group had acquired 3,100 acres at Gopalpur in the mid-1990s to set up a steel plant, which was later shelved. This land remains unutilized, though the company some time back proposed to set up a multi-product SEZ there.
On the possibility of utilizing this land for the Nano project, Harichandan said companies chose sites depending on the availability of water, raw-material and power, among other things, but the Orissa government could take a decision only if there was a proposal from the company.
“We will roll out the red carpet for Tata Motors if it wishes to set up the small car project in any part of the state,” said a statement issued by the office of Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
When contacted, Deshmukh said: “We are definitely interested in getting the Nano project, so if the Tatas are thinking about moving out of West Bengal, they should think of Maharashtra as the first choice as the company already has a sizeable presence in the state and it offers many advantages.”
Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said late this evening at the CPI (M) party headquarters that the state was working on an alternative plan and was open to any rehabilitation package to bring peace to Singur, the site of the plant, and pacify the local community and political parties like Trinamool Congress.
“I cannot disclose the alternative plan we have devised to commission the project and meet the opposition demand, but we are working out a solution which I can reveal only after I have met the opposition leaders again. The project would be implemented and it is nearing completion — I am confident there will not be any problem that will drive away Tata from the state but for this I appeal to all opposition parties staging their programmes from August 24 to keep it peaceful and avoid any untoward incident,” Bhattacharjee said.
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