Nano may roll out from Gujarat

Ahmedabad, Oct 5 (UNI) The Tata Motors' ambitious Nano car is likely to roll out from Sanghan village in Abdasa taluka of Kutch district of Gujarat, official sources here said.

Chief minister Narendra Modi is likely to make an announcement confirming this on October 7, when he completes seven years in office.

Apart from Sanghan, Sanand near Ahmedabad and Halol in central Gujarat are the two other locations offered to Tata chairman Mr Ratan Tata by the state government. However, sources said Kutch stood a better chance of bagging the project.

A package of freebies has been offered to Tata to bring Nano to Gujarat, sources said.

It may be recalled that during the 2007 Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors Summit, Mr Tata had said ''You are stupid if you don't invest in Gujarat.'' Also, soon after Tata Motors made up its mind to pull out of Singur in West Bengal on October 3, the Company Managing Director Ravi Kant met Mr Modi to discuss the details of the project.

State government sources pointed out that there are several factors that had prompted Tatas to opt for Gujarat. Prominent among them is the fact that around 30 per cent of Nano's components are being made at the engineering hub Rajkot, which is easily accessible from any part of the state. Also Mundra and Kandla ports are in the proximity and will be close to the mother plant if set up here. It will also be very close to the Delhi-Mumbai corridor, which will solve logistics issues.

The Tatas are already in the process of setting up a 4,000 Mega Watts Ultra Mega Power Plant in Mundra at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore.

UNI HT RN OBB AKJ BST1805