Calcutta, July 31: Opponents of the Nano factory had fallen on him with steel rods just two days ago in Singur, but engineer Manish Khatua is ready to go back, saying “work has to go on”.

“Shaken but not afraid” is how Khatua, 35, described himself today after being discharged from the city’s Charnock Hospital.

The construction engineer, who works for Shapoorji Pallonji & Co Ltd, was attacked inside the Tata Motors factory premises, allegedly by activists of the Trinamul Congress-backed Save Farmland Committee.

Hospital sources said he was lucky to escape without grievous internal injuries or fractures.

“Yes I am shaken. I had been working (at the site) for almost a year now but had not faced any threat to personal security before this. But I shall be back in a month and 15 days after taking adequate rest,” the father of a four-year-old girl told The Telegraph as he left bed number 202C in a wheelchair.

“The work has to go on, it cannot stop with such disruptions. After all why am I and thousands of others like me putting in their blood and sweat just to see the plant completed in time and the wonder car on the streets?” added Khatua, who is from Haldia but has been living in Singur for the past one year with his wife and daughter.

Although the factory site is guarded by over 400 police as well as 500 private guards hired by Tata Motors, Khatua said, the security is not placed strategically.

“We have to work at various sensitive parts of the site, and we all have families. There are guards around but they should be placed strategically in distant corners of the plant — near the boundary wall where I was attacked and at other such places,” he said. “However, the authorities have helped me a lot and assured me all protection when I get back to work. I believe them.”

Khatua added: “I hope and pray that none of my colleagues from other companies faces such a situation.”

Singur police said that after Tuesday’s attack, security had been beefed up by another 300 to 400 personnel. They have been posted around the plant site and in key town areas, such as the local market where some workers were recently roughed up and the railway station.

Khatua said the attack on him came around 6pm while he was inspecting the boundary wall.

He ran into a mob of 20-22 people who were being chased by the police after they had protested against the arrest of a Save Farmland Committee member at the site on theft charges.

The engineer said some five women and a couple of men began beating him with rods, sharp instruments and whatever else they could lay their hands on.

“He received severe blows on his stomach and lower abdomen. Thank God his internal organs are safe,” said a close relative who lives in the city.

“We used to keep asking him how safe he was in Singur. Till this happened, no one from the factory had been attacked so directly. What is more shocking is that it happened inside the factory premises. He is very strong and will bounce back soon. But we are very scared.”

“I’ll rejoin work soon,” a determined Khatua said as he got up from his wheelchair and walked across to the waiting car with slow but steady steps.