Hyderabad, Jan. 7: Volkswagen has sought details of the damage caused by tsunami waves at a site in the coastal town of Vishakhapatnam where it plans its first Indian unit.

The area, which faced the quake-induced wave fury on December 26, will host a manufacturing facility for cars to be sold in India and exported. Volkswagen?s move to call for information is being seen as a sign of how the unprecedented calamity has affected industrial investments.

A team from Europe?s largest carmaker lead by Helmuth Schuster, head of Asian business, and Ashok Jain, its consultant for India, arrived in Hyderabad this morning. It held long meetings with minister Satyanarayana and state industry secretary K. V. Rao. The officials called on the chief minister before flying to Delhi.

Andhra?s industry minister, B. Satyanarayana, said the government provided data on the tsunami damage, including photographs and video tapes of the ravaged terrain. ?I am confident our presentation will convince them. We expect a positive response in a few weeks,? the minister said.

The Volkswagen delegation was not allowed to speak to the media. All that came out of its visit was a statement from the industry minister saying the meetings made him more confident that the auto major would home in on Andhra.

?We have shown them a 300-acre plot near the Vishakpatnam Steel Plant,? Satyanarayana said. A Volkswagen board meeting in Frankfurt later this month will show whether the minister?s optimism is well founded.

?The global auto giant plans to shovel over Rs 5500 crore ($1.2 billion) in its planned unit, generating more than 10,000 jobs directly and just as many in the ancillary units likely to come up in the booming port town.

The minister said the Volkswagen executives raised doubts over issues related to water, power and taxes, but they were promised that these would be sorted out soon. ?We have explained everything and assured them that the government will do everything possible for Volkswagen to set up its unit in Andhra Pradesh,? he added.

Vishakpatnam was among the several towns on the east coast which had experienced severe tremors as a result of the earth quake on the Sumatra Island, off Indonesia. People deserted apartments in multi-storeyed complexes; beaches were deserted for weeks after the tsunami strike.

Volkswagen will join the bevy of foreign carmakers such as Hyundai, Toyota, Suzuki and Ford in setting up manufacturing hubs to tap into the growing demand for automobiles in India ? Asia?s fourth-largest economy that grew at the rate of 6.6 percent in the quarter ended September.

Volkswagen?s plant will initially assemble cars from completely knocked down (CKD) kits. ?The firm also has proposals to make heavy vehicles and premium cars that will be exported to the Asia-Pacific region,? the minister said.