Date:19/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/19/stories/2008091961941700.htm

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Karnataka offers 1,000 acres for Nano project

Special Correspondent

Tata Motors MD Ravi Kant holds talks with Yeddyurappa

Talks are at initial stage: Chief Minister
“If company pulls out from Singur, BJP government will offer all facilities”

- PHOTO: G.R.N. SOMASHEKAR

KARNATAKA'S INITIATIVE: Karnataka Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa greeting Ravi Kant, Managing Director of Tata Motors, at the Vidhana Soudha in Bangalore on Thursday. Large and Medium Scale Industries Minister Murgesh R. Nirani is at right.

BANGALORE: The Karnataka government says it will offer Tata Motors 1,000 acres of land if the company relocates the Nano car plant at Singur, West Bengal, where the project is dogged by problems.

Managing director G. Ravi Kant on Thursday said Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa agreed to provide all support, assistance and required incentives. “The project requires about 1,000 acres. It is an integrated project,” he told journalists after meeting the Chief Minister and Industries Minister Murugesh R. Nirani at the Secretariat here.

Did the Yeddyurappa government offer 1,000 acres? “Yes,” Mr. Ravi Kant said. “If we have to relocate, we have to have 1,000 acres”

Asked if Tata Motors would relocate the plant, he said, “We are considering alternatives, if required.” A final decision to pull out from West Bengal was yet to be taken.

Tata Motors already has a manufacturing facility in Dharwad, where it produces buses and tractors.

Soon after Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata announced that he was not averse to shifting the Nano project, he received invitations from many States, including Karnataka, Punjab and Haryana.

Addressing journalists, Mr. Yeddyurappa said top executives of Tata Motors met him.

“But talks are at an initial stage.” If the company pulled out from Singur, the BJP government would offer it all facilities.

“We will consider all their demands. If the project comes to Karnataka, the company is ready to offer thousands of jobs to Kannadigas,” the Chief Minister said.

Meeting with Speaker

Mr. Ravi Kant and other senior officials of the company later met Speaker Jagadish Shettar.

A release from the Speaker’s office said the Tata team wanted to thank Mr. Shettar for his cooperation, as minister in the previous government, in setting up the manufacturing facility near Dharwad.

The Speaker assured the delegation that all government support would be provided for setting up the Nano plant.