Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee with Ratan Tata on Thursday. Picture by Pabitra Das

Calcutta, May 18: Ratan Tata said today that his aim was still to turn out the small car at a price of Rs 1 lakh, which he had announced some three years ago, and that it will be another two years before the vehicles actually roll out.

With chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and surrounded by top group executives, he said Tata Motors had decided to locate the project at Singur in Hooghly. Telcon, a subsidiary of the company, will set up an earth-moving equipment plant at Kharagpur.

For the first time, Tata revealed some details about the car that some are sceptical about. “It will be a four-door, four-seater car with the engine at the rear. We have frozen the design. The prototype is ready at Pune. We will start the commercialisation process here in Bengal,” he said.

It will be marketed in both petrol and diesel versions.

The project, to be spread over 700 acres with another 300 kept aside for ancillary production, will create 10,000 jobs, direct and indirect.

“We have come to believe that Bengal is the most investor-friendly state in the country. Someone had to turn that belief into reality. The investment is a reflection that the Tata group has faith in the investment climate and the government of Bengal,” Tata said.

Bhattacharjee, who let Tata do the talking, was modest. Asked what is expected of the government in the next five years, he said: “I will only try to be a performer.”

His performance before the media was consummate. As Mrinal Sen, the film director, told him at the swearing-in: “You’re glowing.”

Videocon group chairman Venugopal Dhoot was the second harbinger of good news for the chief minister. He announced two projects ? a Rs 800-crore IT park and a Rs 100-crore LCD television set manufacturing unit.

“This will be India’s first LCD television. We will use Japanese technology for this project. We intend to start production by April 2007,” Dhoot said after meeting Bhattacharjee at Writers’ Buildings.

He said the Japanese technology Videocon intended to borrow was the “latest”. A team of experts from Japan will land in the city on May 24 to do the groundwork.

The company will also build an IT park adjacent to its factory at Salt Lake. “Over the next two years, we will develop around 40 lakh square feet of space and sell floor space to IT companies. Once fully functional, 25,000 employees will work at this IT park,” Dhoot said.

IT industry sources expressed doubts if the investment would be that high. “It’s not possible to have 40 lakh square feet on the spare land they have ? not even if they build a 30-storey building. For a park of the size they have announced, the maximum investment can be Rs 300 crore,” said one.