Nano to roll out from Singur by Oct: Ravi Kant

Kolkata, Jun 29: 'Nano', the Rs one-lakh small car, will roll out from the Singur plant in October, Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant said here. '' We are fully committed to our Singur project. If everything goes well, we will be rolling out the first version of Nano from this plant by Durga Puja this year, '' he told reporters after meeting West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Mr Kant said the schedule would be maintained despite several difficulties and overrun of the project cost which shot up to Rs 2,200 crore so far from Rs 1,700 crore. The cost escalation was largely because of flood that hit Singur last year, he said. Declining to comment on the controversy over the project site and the continuous political demonstrations by the Trinamool Congress- led Krishi Jami Raksha Committee, the Tata Motors MD said the company was open to talks to anybody.

'' We are not in politics. Our job is manufacturing. We are free for discussion with anybody since we want to work with everybody, '' he said.

Mr Kant said with a substantial global demand for 'Nano', Tata Motors had received expression of interest from a number of countries from Europe, Latin America, South East Asia and the USA to for setting up plants.

However, in the initial years, the company would concentrate only on the domestic market and at the same time, it was keen to explore countries in Africa and Latin America, he said.

UNI