Nano to have permanent home in Pantnagar, too

It is now official. Pantnagar would become a permanent home for Nano - the Rs 100,000 car from Tata Motors.

A company spokesman on Thursday confirmed that the auto major would continue to produce Nano cars from Pantnagar even after the commencement of production at the Sanand plant in Gujarat early next year.

"This is our official position, that Nano would continue to be manufactured from Pantnagar even after the Sanand plant starts operation," the spokesman said.

The Uttarakhand government had, so far, maintained that the auto giant had given a commitment to set up a permanent satellite plant at its Pantnagar facility for producing the ultra-cheap car.

"We are happy that Tata Motors is going to manufacture Nano cars permanently from Pantnagar," chief secretary Indu Kumar Pande told Business Standard.

Tata Motors is planning to produce a total of 50,000 cars per year at the Pantnagar industrial unit, from where the company would launch the first car, Pande added.

Tata Motors was given more than 1,000 acres at Pantnagar by the state government for setting up its manufacturing facility. In addition to this, the auto major has also agreed to distribute all its Nano cars from Pantnagar through its new subsidiary, Tata Motors Distribution Co Ltd.

Through the sale of Nano cars and other commercial vehicles, which are being manufactured at Pantnagar, the state government is hoping to earn an additional tax revenue of Rs 100-200 crore (Rs 1-2 billion) through VAT collections.

Last year, the company got 20 acres from the state government for the distribution company, as well as another 45 acres for expanding the industrial unit for the purpose of producing Nano cars.