Tata fulfils dream, Modi gets his wish: Nano plant

Sanand, Gujarat: Automaker Tata Motors on Wednesday inaugurated a manufacturing plant in Sanand, nearly two years after it was forced to shift the facility out of West Bengal because of a land row.

"When I came here first on an industry visit, I was told that if it (the Nano plant) is not in Gujarat, I will be a stupid. I am no longer stupid after investing on the plant in Gujarat," said Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata while inaugurating the facility.

"The revolution brought by Ford in the early 20th century with its small car is being replicated now by Ratan Tata with his Nano," said Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. An Indian middle-class family's dream to own a car will be fulfilled at Sanand with the inauguration of the Nano plant, he said.

Spread over 1,100 acres, the plant cost about Rs 2,000 crore.

Dream car

Ratan Tata's dream of making a car costing only Rs 1 lakh had to face challenges -- both technical and political--ever since it was conceived in 2003.

At a time when input costs were soaring, keeping the cost of production of a comfortable mini car powered by a 623cc engine giving a competitive mileage, was a challenge big enough for the engineers of Tata Motors.

While Tatas were able to overcome it, the group was unable to beat political challenge from Trinamool Congress and had to shift manufacturing base from the original location at Singur in West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat in October 2008. Tatas, by then, had already put over Rs 1,000 crore in Singur.

It delayed not only the original plans for the commercial launch of Nano by about five months, but also affected its availability.

Till the time the Sanand facility was ready, the company went ahead with limited production of Nano from Pantnagar in Himachal Pradesh. Bookings for the car opened in April 2009 and deliveries began in July that year. It has so far delivered over 35,000

units. However, only the first 1,00,000 customers are assured of getting the car at an ex-factory price of Rs 1,00,000.

The Sanand facility has the capacity to manufacture 2.5 lakh units annually, which can subsequently be increased to 5 lakh units per annum. Pilot commercial production of Nano at Sanand has already begun.