Tata Motors' small car to hit market by 2008 end: Ravi Kant

Mumbai, Jan 23 (UNI) Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant has said that the small car project by his company was well on track and is likely to hit the market by the end of 2008.

The prototype for the same is ready, Mr kant said while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the announcement of the Q3 results of his company.

He said almost 60-70 vendors have already been selected by his company all through the country to sell the small car which was likely to hit the market by the end of 2008.

Although not specifying the exact investment on the project, he, however, said an amount of Rs 10,000 crore investment has been planned within a time period of next three years, and the small car project was an integral part of that investment.

Agreeing to the fact that the new diesel version of the Maruti car has posed a challenge before the car-makers, Mr Kant said, ''We are constantly improving our quality and it is for this reason that we have tied up with Fiat Motors to come up with a diesel engine for our cars.'' In reply to another media query, he said, ''I see a growth of 12-15 per cent in both passenger and heavy vehicles within a period of next 2-3 months.'' Executive Director (Finance) Pravin Kadle said, ''We have lined up a number of vehicles and we will be using them on the opportune moments.'' He added that the passenger vehicle sale from his company has done extremely well during the third quarter and hence he hoped that the same trend will continue during the fourth quarter too.

UNI