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Ratan Tata, Chairman of TATA group. Photo Courtesy: AFP
Ratan Tata calls on Prime Minister
Thu-Sep 04, 2008
New Delhi / Press Trust of India
Tata Group chief Ratan Tata on Thursday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh amid the raging controversy and uncertainty over the Nano car project at Singur, even as the corporate leader vowed to do his best to roll out his dream car as per planned October deadline.
Along with Tata were automotive leaders Rahul Bajaj, Brij Mohan Munjal and Ravi Kant who met the Prime Minister as part of the SIAM delegation.
The meeting comes on the backdrop of Singur controversy, which has almost made the company decide to pull out its Nano project out of West Bengal.
Details of the meeting that SIAM delegation had with the Prime Minister were not known immediately.
Earlier in the day, Tata had refused to comment on the stalemate at Singur but said Tata Motors was trying its best possible to launch the Nano as per schedule.
"Obviously, we are a company which wants to launch Nano as planned. We will try to do everything possible to launch Nano as planned," Tata said at the 48th SIAM Annual Convention 2008 in the capital.
It was, however, not clear if the first lot of Nano would roll out from Singur or an alternate location, plans for which are under consideration of Tata Motors.
Asked if customers would be able to buy Nano by October, Tata said, "The question needs to be asked not to me but to others."
Tata said low-cost small cars would dominate the Indian market.
"I feel reinforced that there will be growing requirement of low-cost small cars," he said.
"The need and demand for low-cost cars in India is growing and such a car would be more dominant "because it reaches out to the people who are looking out for their first car," he added.
Asked if the Rs one-lakh car Nano would come at the original price, Tata refused to comment but said, "Definitely there is a pressure due to rising input costs which the industry as a whole is witnessing."
He said, even globally the demand for small cars would go up due to the rising fuel costs.
Tata was cynosure of all eyes at the annual conference of automobile industry with everybody wanting to know his mind about the Nano project and whether he would relocate it from West Bengal to some other place.
But everybody was kept guessing with Tata sources indicating that it would be premature to comment on it as the West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi has called a meeting on Friday between the state government and protesting Trinamool Congress representatives in a bid to resolve the stalemate.
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