Ratan Tata, chairman of Tata Sons, is mobbed by well-wishers during the Founder’s Day celebrations at the Tata Steel Works in Jamshedpur on Thursday; (above) cricketer Saurabh Tiwary signs autographs for fans while archers Deepika Kumari and Jayanta Talukdar look on. The three represented the sports department of the steel giant. Pictures by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, March 3: The corporate house that aims to add Nano on the roti-kapda-makaan list is working on innovating low-cost housing solutions, said Ratan Tata, Tata Sons chairman, in Jamshedpur for Founder’s Day today.

“The Tata Housing Development Company is working on a technology that will soon bring good news for lower income groups who dream of buying a house,” said Tata, interacting with office bearers and executive body members of Tata Workers’ Union.

He added the technology would “bring down construction cost of building a house”.

“This way, the lower income group can also own houses and also save a significant portion of their hard-earned money,” he added.

The chairman was replying to a query of Bhaskar Tiwary, a union member, during a 45-minute interface at the conference hall of the union office this afternoon.

“Is the Tata Group coming out with any other affordable product, such as the Nano car or the Suraksha water purifier?” Tiwary had asked.

The union’s deputy president, Pyare Lal Shah, wanted to know if Tata Steel’s acquisition of the Anglo-Dutch steel major Corus had made any impact.

Tata nodded in the affirmative and went on to explain how its captive mines helped Tata Steel maintain a healthy profit margin.

Answering a query posed by another office bearer, Tata said steel production would soon touch 36 million tonne per annum (mtpa) with the break-up as follows — 10mtpa in Tata Steel’s Jamshedpur plant, 6mtpa in its Orissa plant, 17mtpa in Corus and 3mtpa in NAT Steel.

“We’re targeting to take production to 50mtpa in the next few years,” Tata said.

The interface turned a shade personal, when the union’s general secretary B.K. Dhinda requested Tata not to retire, but continue as chairman or mentor of Tata Group, citing the example of N.R. Narayan Murthy of Infosys.

But Tata, the great grandson of founder J.N. Tata, and already 73-plus, said it was not possible because of rules.

“I want to retire from my service on time,” said the silver-haired man, one of the most respected faces of India Inc globally.

Earlier, on his arrival at the union office, Tata was accorded a warm welcome by Raghunath Pandey, the union president.

Tata, who was accompanied by Tata Steel managing director H.M. Nerurkar, also went around the union office library and evinced interest in the union’s website. He also browsed the union office library for a good 15 minutes.

Tata also signed the visitor’s book, giving “full marks” to the activities of the union and its efforts to maintain industrial harmony and mutual trust.