Calcutta, Nov. 10: The Tatas’ community development work in Singur would generate jobs for around 10,000 people, Tata Motors managing director Ravi Kant has told a Bengal Assembly team now touring its Pune plant.

The assurance came at a meeting last night after the Assembly standing committee on commerce and industries inspected the automobile factory and saw the development work engineered by the Tatas around their plant. The model, the company said, would be replicated in Singur, from where its Rs 1-lakh dream car will roll out in 2008.

In a written note to the chairman of the committee, Congress MLA Sudip Bandopadhyay, Tata Motors has said: “The Singur plant will initially directly employ 2,000 people and is expected to create employment for 10,000 jobs amongst vendors and service providers in the vicinity of the plant.’’

Kant said the government has assured him that the 997-acre plot, about 40 km from Calcutta, would be handed over after the standing crop is harvested.

“We are impressed by the sort of work the Tatas have done for the uplift of people living in places around their factory. They want to do similar work in Singur,’’ Bandopadhyay told The Telegraph over phone.

Senior Tata Motors officials told the committee that they want to explore the possibility of setting up kiosks for vegetable vendors, cycle mechanics, fruit sellers, electricians, carpenters and launders as part of their efforts to create self-employment opportunities. In addition, the Tatas are thinking of engaging unskilled local residents for housekeeping, gardening and canteen work, Bandopadhyay said.

The Assembly team was also shown a model of the Rs 1-lakh car.