Nobody has right to question selection of Singur: Ravi Kant

Kolkata, Mar 29 (UNI) Blowing off criticism on the choice of Singur for the small car factory, Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant today said nobody had the right to question where the plant should be located.

"It is our decision. Nobody has the right to question that," he said at an interactive session at the Calcutta Management Association.

Mr Ravi Kant said the company had inspected six sites in the state for locating the plant for its Rs one lakh car. "But, we decided to set it up at Singur as we thought it was the best," he said.

It was not incumbent on Tata Motors to locate the plant in West Bengal, he said adding the company had options as a number of state governments had approached for locating the plant.

" Because the West Bengal government had approached us for locating the plant here, Tata Motors is here today," Mr. Kant said.

Stating the rationale behind choosing West Bengal as the state for the proposed plant, he said it was because of the commitment and sincerity of the Left Front Government that prompted Tata Motors to go ahead. "I must say they were faster than anbody else to have attracted us to the state... we were impressed with the professionalism which was displayed in getting us to the state," he said.

Asserting that the plant would change the industrial climate in West Bengal, he said it would not only be a car plant, but an auto cluster would also come up at Singur.

The Singur plant would start manufacturing from the middle of 2008 and have a capacity of 2.5 lakh unit per annum.

Referring to the criticism over incentives offered by state governments to attract investments, Mr Kant observed that this was widely in practice in countries like China and the UK.

" Why should we close our eyes when governments are coming forward with incentives?" he asked.

" It is not that these incentives are available only in India.

These incentives are equally applicable elsewhere in different countries, including China, the US and the UK....now it is for the local government and the National government to decide what they want to do." Mr Kant said it was necessary to achieve competitiveness which would lead to sustained profitability of companies.

UNI