Karnataka organises meeting with Tata's for nano project

Bangalore: The Karnataka Government has moved into top gear on the Nano car project and quickly organised a high-level meeting with the Tata Motors Managing Director, Mr Ravi Kant, at Dharwad.

The Industry Minister, Mr Murugesh Nirani, who travelled from Bijapur to Dharwad said that the Chief Secretary, Mr Sudhakar Rao, was joining the meeting and site inspection slated to begin at 9 a.m.

The Industry Secretary, Mr V.Umesh, Finance Secretary, Mr M.R.Sreenivasa Murthy, the Industries Commissioner, Dr Rajkumar Khatri, and land acquisition officials from the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board (KIADB) would also be there.

Mr Ravi Kant is said to be coming with Mr P.M.Telang, who is a board director and Executive Director (Commercial Vehicles), and four senior officials. A spokesman for the Tata group said he could not comment on the movements of the company’s brass.

The B.S.Yeddyurappa Government raised the Nano pitch on Friday soon after Mr Ratan Tata announced he was pulling the Nano project out of Singur. Mr Yeddyurappa immediately called up Mr Tata to invite him to Dharwad, where already two Tata projects are present. Mr Nirani said he had held talks with Mr Ravi Kant twice.

The Tata officials were expected to give their views after a week as Mr Tata was travelling. Karnataka has been hard-selling Dharwad to the Tatas ever since the company said it started looking out of Singur. It has already offered “all help” and 1,000 acres of land near the two existing Tata plants: one is a 51:49 joint venture for CNG buses Tata Marcopolo Motors Ltd and the other is the earth moving venture with Hitachi-Telco Construction Equipment Co Ltd (Telcon).

Karnataka is pitching the site also on the ground that it is close to NH4 and on the way to the company’s Pune auto facility. The offer was made to Mr Ravi Kant when he met the Chief Minister on September 18. Two Tata teams have visited Bangalore and Dharwad, one just four days back.

Without elaborating, Mr Umesh merely said they had discussed land, water and power requirements and would offer incentives similar to those given to the earlier Tata projects or the other car plant the Toyota Kirloskar venture at Bidadi.

Earlier in Dharwad, the Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr B.S. Yeddyurappa, inaugurating the Agri Fair of the University of Agricultural Sciences, said the State’s Major and Medium Industries Minister, Mr Murugesh Nirani, had been asked to make efforts to bring the small-car project to Dharwad. “If Nano comes to Dharwad, it will boost the development of the region,” he said.

When the mediapersons asked Mr Yeddyurappa on the progress made in attracting the project to Dharwad, he said the State had held two rounds of discussions. Mr Nirani would hold another round of talks.

Asked if the region has the land required to meet the needs of the Nano project, Mry Yeddyurappa said: “We are ready to provide all kinds of facilities to the Tatas if they are ready to come here. We are making sincere efforts to bring the Nano project to Dharwad.”