Auto major Tata Motors is gearing up to roll out its first Nano car from Pantnagar. A team of company officials would arrive here on November 6 to hold talks with the Uttarakhand government on various issues and are likely to finalise details to expedite the launch of the much-awaited small car.
Tata Motors, which had planned to roll out its first Nano car from the Pantnagar industrial estate as an interim arrangement, now intends to set up a small manufacturing unit for the small car there since it would take a long time to establish the mother plant in Gujarat.
Official sources here said the company officials might seek additional land in Pantnagar from the state government.
Last month, state Chief Secretary Indu Kumar Pande had said that the company was planning to set up a small manufacturing unit for Nano in Pantnagar. Although the company recently got 1,100 acres near Ahmedabad from the Gujarat government to set up its proposed mother plant, it plans to upgrade the interim manufacturing arrangement at Pantnagar into a permanent one.
The company is understood to have started manufacturing Nano cars at its Pantnagar facility from where the small car is expected to roll out by December-January next year.
Sources said the company still possesses 300 acres of vacant land at its 1,000 acre-industrial plot at Pantnagar where it can easily carry out expansion. In case the company wants more land, the sources added, such demand would be met sympathetically. Last month, the state government had lowered the lease rent for the company’s Pantnagar plant to Re 1 per sq metre from Rs 5 per sq metre.
Also Read
Uttarakhand recently lost the battle for inviting Tata Motors to set up its Nano mother plant at Pantnagar after it failed to provide 1,000 acres of land to the auto major.
Among other issues which the company officials would likely to take up include 55 acres of land for housing purpose.