The Nano: On course

Pantnagar, Sept. 15: Amid efforts to ensure the Nano rollout from Bengal, a Tata Mo- tors team that had been engaged in Singur has been making up for lost time by working on the car’s outer shell at the Uttarakhand facility.

No official wanted to be quoted, but sources in the Tata Motors plant said at least 15 officials from Singur, aided by 10 from Pune, are putting together the basic fabric of the car — the outer shell and the engine space.

“We did not want the engineers and mechanics to sit idle at Singur, so we got them over. It’s better that they work in the presence of experienced engineers at a proper set-up,” a Tata engineer said on condition of anonymity.

Company officials main- tained that the Singur employees were being trained here as no work was on in Bengal.

“They have to be absorbed somewhere,” said an official. Asked why the training could not be imparted in Jamshedpur, much closer to Calcutta, the official declined comment.

Debasish Ray, the Mumbai-based spokesman for Tata Motors, said no decision had been taken yet on an alternative plant to manufacture the Nano.

“We had stated earlier that Tata Motors would explore the possibility of producing the Nano from alternative plants in the event of the crisis continuing in Singur. Nothing has been decided on which plant it would opt for. We still hope the situation in Singur would improve,” he said.

The plant in Pantnagar, about 400km from Lucknow, produces the Ace, a small pick-up, and Magic, a passenger vehicle. The facility was initially chosen to build the Nano but the Tatas later picked Singur.

The Pantnagar plant can’t produce the finished Nano as local vendors are not ready to take on the extra load. The MD of a key vendor said: “We won’t be able to feed two projects simultaneously.”

A source said: “The company (Tata Motors) is fighting to meet its deadline. Many workdays have been lost. The core group from Singur is trying to produce the basic fabric of the car from here.”

The team apparently includes Pankaj Jain, an engineer of divisional manager rank who was based in Singur. Assisting them is a batch from Pune, which has S. Prabhu, a senior engineer who was about to be relocated to Singur.

The senior members are staying at the Ginger hotel — a budget chain of the Tatas — while the others have been accommodated in two company guesthouses.

An engineer from the Singur team said: “Let me first dispel the idea that the Nano will roll out from Pantnagar.... With some of our colleagues from Pune, I’m working on the Nano’s structure here.”

The shells produced here were likely to feed the plant in Singur, which, sources said, would jack up the production cost of the small car.

The Singur plant is expected to roll out 2.5 lakh cars in the first phase.

The sources said the employees from Singur would be able to complete at least 300 shells a day. The labourers needed are being recruited locally.

During the next week, the plant is expected increase production, which, the sources said, would help compensate for the work-hours lost in Singur.

Karnataka in race

The BJP government in Karnataka has invited Tata Motors MD Ravi Kant for talks on Thursday in its bid to bring the Nano project to the state, PTI said tonight. The Tatas have a plant in Dharvad and the state has promised more land.