[petroguzzler]

SOURCE: ACI

Tata Nano, the world’s cheapest car, is set to enter full swing production following the inauguration of Tata Motors' manufacturing facility in Sanand. The Nano’s mother plant was inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi and Tata Group chairman, Ratan Tata.
Spread over about 1,100 acres, the Sanand plant has been created at an investment of about Rs 2,000 crore. The new facility has an annual manufacturing capacity of 2.5 lakh units, which can subsequently be increased to 3.5 lakh units per annum. Pilot commercial production of Nano at Sanand has already begun, with deliveries from the plant, including the BS IV Tata Nanos, starting this month.
Speaking on the occasion, Ratan Tata said, “We are happy that the Tata Nano has found its home at Sanand in Gujarat. We would like to thank everyone who has made this possible, particularly the Honourable Chief Minister, Narendra Modi. I am glad that we will now be able to manufacture the Tata Nano at a plant, set up in record time by the Tata Motors team who have and continue to receive full support from the Gujarat administration.”
"When I came here first on an industry visit invited by Gujarat Chief Minister, I was told that if the Nano plant is not in Gujarat, I will be a stupid.” “I am no longer stupid after investing on the plant in Gujarat," he added.
The production at the Sanand plant begins almost two years after it was forced to shift the Nano’s manufacturing plant from West Bengal. Built in a record time of 14 months starting November 2008, the integrated facility comprises Tata Motors’ own plant, spread over 725 acres, and an adjacent vendor park spread over 375 acres to house key component manufacturers for the Tata Nano.
To celebrate the inauguration of the plant, a fleet of Tata Nanos began a country-wide drive, called the Nano Superdrive, from Sanand. The drive was flagged off by Ratan Tata. The drive will cover 15,000 km touching 36 cities across the country, before converging at Sanand on June 28.



SOME PICS:

[agspins]

BTW did anybody notice the Convertible/Roof chopped Nano's used inside the plant.It was shown in a news clip.

[S350L-E240]

Considering this is 10 minutes from my office, you must see in so little time the amount of work that has happened not only at the plant but also in terms of infrastructure around the plant.

Why is carl-Peter forster not present? Should he not now have a bigger public image?

Also would Nano in future perhaps have more variants on the same platform? Like a mini SUV, Roadster, MPV? All this can be done under the 4M restriction and I think a lot of exciting models can be made on this with a low price.

[pratim]

Originally Posted by airbender

Some may find this offensive, but for some reason people of west bengal voted for governments which are not business friendly. Jyoti Basu's 30+ years were like curse for west bengal. He did not let the business thrive but also allowed bangladesis settle in WB.

@airbender, that's a very superficial and simplistic view to the point of almost being one dimensional.

Other than the over enthusiastic comrades, there were definite GOI policy matters/decisions that also worked against the industries in WB.

At the risk of being branded as a left supporter and thus opposed to industry/market economy et al here is my take why folks in rural Bengal thought left guys being their natural choice for long:

The first master stroke was to distribute lots of benami lands, government lands to landless peasants for ownership. Land sharks, the local landlords and influential families lost lot of benami lands in the process and those were distributed among the poorest of the poors. In a way, this was a poetic justice. Lands that were robbed off the hapless poor peasants two three generations ago or even before were being returned to the poor masses.

The second masterstoke was the sharecropping system that was introduced for the benefit of landless peasants who used to till and farm the lands on behalf of land owners. The land owners usually belong to the rich or middle class bengali families, who had usually other means of income and used to consider tilling in their own lands/farms by themsleves as a lowly job.

There were no panchayats that were being elected by the people and being run by the people; it was run from local influential landlords drawing rooms. These left guys brought in local self governance in form of panchayetiraj, I think, for the first in the whole country. Common people, the Ram-Shyam-Jadu-Madhu-Rahim-Rahamats, for the first time in history of WB got a say in local governance. They got their voice.

Hundreds, rather thousands of villages got electricity, water(some portions of WB were draught prone), roads and schools for all for the first time. I remember carrying drinking water from houses that were more than 100 metres away in summer. We used to get electricity in my childhood days rarely. All these changed for good.

Lots of new primary schools opened and local village boys got teachership in those schools. Until these guys came in power, the teachers of schools in rural WB used to get salaries that were a pittiance, no one could live honourably with that. To compund the problem, salaries were very irregular and to a good extent their job depended on the local influentials, landlords and their representatives. Now they started getting regular salaries, got huge increments soon. Suddenly, teacherships in secondary and even primary schools became lucrative among the youth.

Common folks got friends in the party whole timers who would be with them when they need them the most with helps of all kinds. I personally seen these kind of dedicated whole timers, a species that's almost extinct now in the rank and file of the left parties.

In short, there were defenite, long term policy decisions and measures that were taken by the WB Government after left parties came in. These things saw them gaining wide acceptance among the rural masses, most of them being from backward classes, scheduled castes and tribes and musim communities.

Also a sizeable section of educated bengali middle class folks were supporters, who usually did not have huge land holdings. They mostly used to depend on teachership, clerical jobs etc. for livelihood. These later section soon became the mainstay of the leadership in the local party units.

One needs to understand the socio-economic history of WB, the partition etc to really gain some insight why a particular political outfit gained popularity among the masses. Without that statements such as above may be seen as an insult to the masses who are no less intelligent than their counterparts in the other parts of the country. Of course, Bengalis have their own set of issues and problems that keep them bogged down. Let them figure that out by themselves and all we can do is to extend them some considerations.

I am kind of sorry for going hugely off topic here. But, I keep on reading negative view points or comments about the left rule in WB and the people of WB in various posts here that I could not hold myself.

I know very well that what ever I have stated above will be difficult to digest for some. But, then that's what it is!

-Pratim

[airbender]

Originally Posted by supremeBaleno

That's why I said Mamata 'might' have played politics, which is sad. I am no Mamata supporter (find her too shrill and loud), but if the WB Govt. passed on fertile land to industry, that was wrong is all I am saying. And this applies to any state in India.

Agree with you totally.

This is a link about Nano.

Nano overdrive leaves parts cos gasping-Your Money-Features-The Economic Times

Tata is looking to increase the production to 1200 cars per day. That's more than 30000 Nano's per month. Does that mean we are going to see more launches on Nano platform and also a diesel Nano before December?

[airbender]

Originally Posted by avishar

Its not as pitiful as it seems.Its the 3rd largest economy in India after Maharashtra and UP,and just ahead of AP.Then comes TN,Gujarat and Karnataka.

That's a surprise for me. Can you back it with some statistics. West Bengal is a big state with a big population but still being no 3 is a surprise for me.

Originally Posted by agspins

BTW did anybody notice the Convertible/Roof chopped Nano's used inside the plant.It was shown in a news clip.

That's interesting. Any link for that clip?

Originally Posted by pratim

The first master stroke was to distribute lots of benami lands, government lands to landless peasants for ownership. Land sharks, the local landlords and influential families lost lot of benami lands in the process and those were distributed among the poorest of the poors. In a way, this was a poetic justice. Lands that were robbed off the hapless poor peasants two three generations ago or even before were being returned to the poor masses.

Distributing government land to land less peasants is OK for me. But what about distributing private land? What power does the government has to do this? If the government thinks a particular person robbed the hapless poor then let there be judicial procedure to deal with. What you say is not poetic justice. That's jungle raj. We live in a democracy not dictatorship. I come from Andhra Pradesh. End 2008/2009 left started a movement asking for lands of rich to be distributed to the poor. They occupied all the real estate land in and around hyderabad planting red flags, wanting them to be distributed to the poor. What right does these parties have to do that? Some people are used to these free lunches and when they see them not coming they would vote the government out of power. I am aghast that a educated person like you is supporting that policy. Most of the time these policies are aimed at taking down opponents than helping the poor.

All other examples are the change that took place around the country not just in West Bengal.

I know WB from my friends from that state and from the media. Every year WB tops the number of bandhs and lock outs. I worked with some bengalis who tell me how easy it is in WB for the red flagers to go as a group and force a company to lock out. Left has killed industry for 40 years yet got voted back to power. Now Mamata is doing the same and she will be in Power.

[Amartya]

Originally Posted by airbender

Agree with you totally.

This is a link about Nano.

Nano overdrive leaves parts cos gasping-Your Money-Features-The Economic Times

Tata is looking to increase the production to 1200 cars per day. That's more than 30000 Nano's per month. Does that mean we are going to see more launches on Nano platform and also a diesel Nano before December?

Thanks for sharing the link, interesting.
Although the diesel Nano is a distinct possibility, I am not sure that they'll be able to do it before December (purely speculation on my part). Look at the numbers of the Alto for this month, Maruti sold close to 24K units. So if the Nano finds that many customers a month, it'll be close to the 30K figure mentioned.

[avishar]

@airbender

This is from wiki,2006 numbers.
List of Indian states by GDP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[airbender]

Originally Posted by avishar

@airbender

This is from wiki,2006 numbers.
List of Indian states by GDP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Avishar: Sort it by Per Capita and see West Bengal listed at 20.

GDP might not be good measure of development. Uttar Pradesh is second in that list. Does not mean that it's second most developed in the country. WB is fourth highest for population.

Originally Posted by Amartya

Thanks for sharing the link, interesting.
Although the diesel Nano is a distinct possibility, I am not sure that they'll be able to do it before December (purely speculation on my part). Look at the numbers of the Alto for this month, Maruti sold close to 24K units. So if the Nano finds that many customers a month, it'll be close to the 30K figure mentioned.

30000+ 4500(from pantnagar) Nanos every month I think is a little on the higher side. Atleast initially. They would have to launch more models on the Nano platform to cross that level.

[Amartya]

Originally Posted by airbender

Avishar: Sort it by Per Capita and see West Bengal listed at 20.

GDP might not be good measure of development. Uttar Pradesh is second in that list. Does not mean that it's second most developed in the country. WB is fourth highest for population.

Correct

Originally Posted by airbender

30000+ 4500(from pantnagar) Nanos every month I think is a little on the higher side. Atleast initially. They would have to launch more models on the Nano platform to cross that level.

Agreed. I was under the impression that the production at Pantnagar was to stop, and they'd make the Iris (which might be based on the Nano) there. The reason being, the vendor park is in Sanand and it would seem that the production costs can be kept in check more easily there. Again, I can be wrong, and of course, I'd love to see more versions of the Nano coming out (specially the Europa).

[airbender]

Originally Posted by Amartya

Agreed. I was under the impression that the production at Pantnagar was to stop, and they'd make the Iris (which might be based on the Nano) there. The reason being, the vendor park is in Sanand and it would seem that the production costs can be kept in check more easily there. Again, I can be wrong, and of course, I'd love to see more versions of the Nano coming out (specially the Europa).

I don't think pantnagar plant will continue to roll out Nano's for long.

Nano - Pantnagar plant not viable in longrun

I too love to see more versions on Nano platform. Atleast a small SUV, a small Sedan.

[SunilM]

Originally Posted by airbender

30000+ 4500(from pantnagar) Nanos every month I think is a little on the higher side. Atleast initially. They would have to launch more models on the Nano platform to cross that level.

Just curious, Where did you get the figure of 30,000 + 4500 per month initially? It is indeed on the higher side

I read it was 150-200 per day initially i.e about 5,000 per month from Ahmedabad plant and 4500 from Pantnagar, making it a shade less than 10,000 per month at least till the year end. Even the link you posted above confirms these figures. In that case, Pantnagar producing Nanos for some more time makes sense.

[airbender]

Originally Posted by SunilM

Just curious, Where did you get the figure of 30,000 + 4500 per month initially? It is indeed on the higher side

I read it was 150-200 per day initially i.e about 5,000 per month from Ahmedabad plant and 4500 from Pantnagar, making it a shade less than 10,000 per month at least till the year end. Even the link you posted above confirms these figures. In that case, Pantnagar producing Nanos for some more time makes sense.

The link says 1200 nanos per day in December.

Originally Posted by airbender

I don't think pantnagar plant will continue to roll out Nano's for long.

for long meaning next year.

[GTO]

Note from Mod : Please do NOT indulge in political discussions. To quote from our rules section:

13. Sensitive discussions involving politics or religion are to be avoided, due to their highly subjective nature which can lead to volatile and inconclusive debates.

[ottocycle]

On-spot availability for Nano from August-September-Automobiles-Auto-News By Industry-News-The Economic Times

Good news for nano lovers.

PANAJI: Tata Nano will be available off the shelf by August-September, negating the need to book it in advance, a senior company officer said here today.

"From this August or September, customers will be able to walk into our showroom and drive out in a Nano," Manoj Arora, Senior Manager, Tata Motors, told reporters.

Arora said that setting up a manufacturing facility at Sanand (Gujarat) will help the company deliver cars faster.

Tata Motors has been producing limited units of the Nano at its Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand.

The company had taken bookings for only 1.55 lakh units through a lottery after the Nano was launched on March 23, 2009. Out of the total, only one lakh units were price-protected and the company was scheduled to deliver them by this year-end.

At present, there are 35,000 Nanos plying on Indian roads. "The Sananad facility can manufacture 2.5 lakh units per annum," he said.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Tata Nano's 'Superdrive' event, which will have cars traveling through the length and breadth of the country, Arora said that the company has nearly fulfilled the commitment made during the first lot of bookings.

Arora said that the car is doing well in the market because customers are satisfied by it.

Speaking on the Superdrive event, he said that the Nanos were flagged off from the Tata Motor Plant at Sanand on June 2.

"Nine Tata Nanos will cover three different routes during a 26-day-long voyage, and will visit 36 cities -- covering a distance of over 15,000 kilometres," he said