Date:16/10/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/10/16/stories/2008101656481200.htm

National

Gujarat fixes land price at Rs. 400 crore for Nano

Manas Dasgupta

PIL challenges the allocation of land to Tatas

GANDHINAGAR: The Gujarat Cabinet on Wednesday fixed the price of the land allocated for the Tatas Nano small car project in Sanand taluka in Ahmedabad district at Rs. 400.65 crore.

The State Cabinet which met here on Wednesday under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, decided on a price of Rs. 900 per square metre for the 1,100 acres of land allocated for the project.

The total amount was Rs. 400.65 crore.

Compound interest

Cabinet spokesman and Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said in case the Tatas decided to pay in instalments, the Cabinet would charge an eight per cent compound interest from the date of taking possession of the land. He said the land price had been worked out by the district- and State-level valuation committees after an extensive survey of the area to finalise the prevailing market price.

An agreement between the State Government and the Tata Motors was signed here on October 7 for the allocation of lands in Sanand to relocate the project after it was forced to move out of Singur in West Bengal following opposition agitation demanding return of the lands to the unwilling farmers.

While details of the agreement were not disclosed, Mr. Modi had stated then that the land would be allocated to the Tatas at the “prevailing market price” to be worked out by the State Government. Tata group chairman Ratan Tata had also promised to pay the price fixed by the State Government.

Work on the Rs. 2,000-crore project was expected to start soon to manufacture three lakh Nano cars a year in the first phase, to be expanded to five lakh cars in the second phase.

Meanwhile, a Gandhinagar-based voluntary organisation, Rashtriya Kisan Dal (RKD), has filed a public interest litigation in the Gujarat High Court challenging the State Government’s decision to allocate land to the Tatas for the Nano project.

In its petition, the RKD said the land allocated belonged to the Gujarat Agricultural University specifically for agricultural purposes and could not be allocated for industrial uses.