Swraj Paul in Calcutta on Monday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, April 8: Caparo Engineering India, which will supply sheet metal and vehicle frames for the Tata Nano, expects its auto component manufacturing facility in Singur to be operational when the Tatas are ready to roll out their small car.

“We cannot afford to let the Tatas down and our project is under construction. We will be ready when they are. After all we are making 10 per cent of the Nano’s components,” said Swraj Paul, chairman of the Caparo Group. Paul was in the city leading a parliamentary delegation from the UK.

On an earlier visit to Singur, Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant had said the Nano would be available for sale by Durga Puja.

Everything will be completed before the trial production, which is set to commence from June or July, with regular production starting a month or two later, Kant added.

Caparo is investing Rs 120 crore to set up a component supplying facility over 25 acres in the Singur vendor park, part of the Tata Motors project.

The move is being seen by auto analysts as a great way for the company to know about small car production.

“Bengal’s wealth is its people. After getting a better perspective on the state from the industry minister, secretary and the standing committee on commerce and industry, we can now go back and tell our colleagues who are interested in investing in Bengal that the state is marching ahead,” he added.

Paul had a two-hour meeting with commerce and industry minister Nirupam Sen, industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen and M.V. Rao, managing director of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC), along with Sudip Bandyopadhyay, chairman of the standing committee on commerce and industry and industrial reconstruction.

Hyundai plant

Caparo India recently signed a deal to produce and sell Hyundai Aerobus for the Indian market. For this purpose, the company will set up a unit in southern India which will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Caparo India.

The facility will start production in the final quarter of 2008-09. During his visit to the Rs 400-crore, 120-acre Chennai plant in October last year, Paul had said Caparo Engineering India was looking at a turnover of Rs 4,000 crore by 2011 and Rs 2,000 crore by 2009.