Tata Motors sets Durga Puja roll-out for Nano despite violence, cost overruns

Mumbai: Tata Motors plans to roll out its Rs1 lakh small car Nano from its Singur facility by Durga Puja despite cost overruns and escalating violence at the project site.

Tata Motors officials reviewed the progress of the project and said trial runs of the nano are planned for July.

Ravi Kant, managing director of the company, who took stock of the progress of the plant and the vendor park in Singur, said the entire project had been reworked at the plant site due to floods last year which had led to the cost escalation.

"We have already sunk in Rs2,000 crore", Kant said, adding the project cost was pegged at Rs1,700 crore earlier.
 
Agitators, meanwhile, pulled down an eight-foot stretch of the boundary wall, blocked Durgapur Expressway in Dankuni and Bora, prompting police to escort the Tata Motors MD's motorcade via an alternate route through Nadia on his way back to Kolkata.

Police had to fire tear gas shells and resort to lathi-charge to disperse the mob. Things cooled down after newly elected Hooghly zilla parishad member and Trinamool leader Manik Das intervened.

Ravi Kant, however, said Tata motors was fully committed to the Singur project, and if everything went well as planned, then the Nano car would be rolled out from the plant during Durga Puja.

"We hope to start trial production during July or August" he said.