Tata Motors' Singur plant is as per schedule: Ravi Kant

Kolkata, Mar 15 (UNI) Ruling out all apprehension Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant today reassured the Government of West Bengal that their proposed small car projects will be completed at Singur 'as per schedule by next year'.

Speaking to newsmen on the sidelines of an automobile seminar organised by the Federation of Automobile Dealers' Associations here today, Mr Ravi Kant made it clear that the commercial productiobn of the 2,50,000 units small car projects would start its commercial production from the middle of next year as per schedule.

Asked whether Tata Motors were facing any problems or obstacles in starting the new projects Mr Ravi Kant replied in the negative and hoped that things would continue to move smoothly.

When his attention was drawn to his earlier observation at the meeting, that Tata Motors was absolutely facing no problem at Uttarakhand, where the company was setting up its 2,50,000 capacity small truck manufacturing unit, viz-a-viz, the company's Singur Project, Mr Ravi Kant said he was not aware of any major hurdles here.

Mr Ravi Kant howeve, refused to make any comment when his attention was drawn to yesterday's unprovoked police firing in Nandigram, killing 14 people and said Tata Motors had nothing to do with it.

Earlier, addressing the seminar, Mr Ravi Kant called upon other major automobile manufacturig companies to take advantage of the ongoing industrial resurgence in the eastern region, particularly in West Bengal and set up their units to meet the increasing demand. He said like all previous occassions Tata Motors had taken the first initiative and was setting up their small car units in West Bengal and hoped that other major manufacturers would soon follow.

Referring to Tata Motors' future growth plan its Managing Director said apart from having three plants at Jamshedpur, Pune and Lucknow, two greenfield units were coming up in Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Tata Motors was setting up a number of assembling units in Thailand, South Africa and in number of other countries, with an investment running into several thousand crores.

He also stressed the need for developing a well-knit network of distributors to serve the customers better and in a more meaningful manner.

Among others, West Bengal Transport Minister Subhash Chakraborty, who inaugurated the seminar spoke on the occassion and announced the setting up of a 46-km-long elevated ring road in and around Kolkata for the first time in the world, within the next three to four years. to avoid the traffic congestion in this eastern metropolis.

The state has received the green signal from the Union Government only yesterday, Mr Chakraborty said.

UNI