The Hindu Business Line : Karnataka offers 1,000 acres for Nano plant

Rolling out the red carpet: The Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr B. S. Yeddyurappa, greeting the Managing Director of Tata Motors Ltd, Mr Ravi Kant, at the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore on Thursday. - G.R. N. Somashekar

Our Bureau

Bangalore, Sept. 18 Tata Motors said on Thursday the Karnataka Government was willing to offer 1,000 acres of land and other incentives to the company if it had plans to relocate the Nano small car project to the State.

“We are actively looking at alternative sites,” the Tata Motors Managing Director, Mr Ravi Kant, told newspersons here after meeting the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa. “If we have to relocate, we will need to have 1,000 acres. It will be an integrated plant,” Mr Ravi Kant said.

Later, Mr Yeddyurappa told newspersons after a Cabinet meeting, that Tata Motors’ top executives had a meeting with him and he had extended all assistance and incentives if the company wished to relocate its Nano plant to Karnataka. “In case they want to shift, we will give them all support,” he said.

Preliminary stage

The Chief Minister, however, said that the talks were at a preliminary stage and Tata Motors officials had informed him that in case the company plans to shift out of West Bengal, it would consider Karnataka’s offer.

Tata Motors suspended construction work at the Nano small car plant in Singur, near Kolkata, on September 2 citing hostile environment at the site. The company had also said it was working out detailed plans to relocate the plant and machinery to another site.

The Trinamool Congress has been agitating demanding return of land to those farmers who were not willing to part with their land for the project. “We are watching the situation (in Singur) carefully,” Mr Ravi Kant said.

Tata Motors had earlier indicated that it was planning to set up assembly plants in Dharwad in north Karnataka and a few other cities for Nano small car, but no decision has been taken so far in this regard.

The company has about 900 acres of land in Dharwad where it has a manufacturing base for low-floor buses in collaboration with Marcopolo S.A. of Brazil. These buses are expected to be launched some time next month in Karnataka.

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More Stories on : Cars | New Projects | Karnataka | Tata Motors Ltd

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