Why was initial Plant Location a Problem ?

Tata Nano Singur Controversy refers to the controversy generated by land acquisition of the proposed Nano factory of Tata Motors at [Singur] in Hooghly district, West Bengal, India. Tata Motors started constructing a factory to manufacture their $2,500 car, the Tata Nano at Singur .The project faced massive opposition from 2,000 of the 12,000 displaced farmers .The problem has been raised by those farmers who maintain that their land has been taken away from them by force against their will. The state government of West Bengal facilitated the controversy by using an old rule to conduct an eminent domain takeover of 997 acres (4.03 km2) of farmland to have Tata build its factory. The rule is meant for public improvement projects, and the West Bengal government wanted Tata to build in its state. The project was opposed by activists, displaced land owners and opposition parties in Bengal.

The unwilling farmers were given political support by West Bengal's fire brand opposition leader Miss Mamata Bannerjee with an eye to the upcoming Lok Sabha (Parliamentary) elections Miss Bannerjee's Save Farmland movement was supported by celebrity antidevelopment activists & farmers. The issue had turned into a power show. Where one party claimed to befighting for poor of Bengal while other says whatsoever is being done is for growth of state The Tatas finally decided to move out of Singur on 3rd October, 2008 The pullout decision meant, loss of huge investment for the state of West Bengal On 7th October, 2008, the Tatas announced that they would be setting up the Tata Nano plant in Sanand, Gujarat. The company last week scrapped its 350-million-dollar project in the eastern state of West Bengal after continuing protests by farmers over land acquired for the plant.

The alternatives available

Several states that had offered to help include Haryana, Maharashtra, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh. Even Sri Lanka had made up suitable plans for TATAS relocation. New Nano plant would be located on 440 hectares in the Sanand area near the commercial capital Ahmadabad . Finally Gujarat is basking in the glory of rescuing the plant & is at present providing shelter to the car which had been every common mans dream.

Why Sanand ?
Conditions did not improve at Singur Land available in plenty at Sanand The overall climate in Gujarat has been extremely favorable to industry The general populace of the state is in favour of industrialization The strategic location of Sanand, some 30 km from Ahmedabad and its proximity to the Ahmedabad-Rajkot highway made the new site attractive close to the Charodi railway station Setting up the Nano plant in Gujarat is advantageous for the group because nearly 50 % of the car parts are produced in Rajkot , and the extensive coastline of the state could be beneficial for imports and exports The location was, it was just 200 km from Rajkot, where the best engineering workforce can be found. Then there is the ultra mega power project of 4,000 mw that the Tatas are setting up at Mundra port . The Tatas could draw on power from their own plant in Mundra Mundra Port would allow them to import steel and other raw materials at very low cost even from overseas. Transporting the same over land would cost thrice as much. Mundra had the edge given its container depots for vehicles and a huge roll on, roll off terminal for loading and unloading vehicles Then there was a 6-lane highway just 1 km away from the land earmarked for Tata Motors When the Tata Motors team visited Andhra Pradesh, they were confronted by agitated farmers who did not want to part with their land. That was scary for the Tata folk. Maharashtra automatically became the choice, but the Tatas got mixed signals from several quarters.

Ratan Tatas Speech

One was stupid if not investing in Gujarat. I have to say that today there is no state like Gujarat. Under Mr. Modis leadership, Gujarat is head and shoulders above any state. A state would

normally take 90 to 180 days to clear a new plant but in the Nano case, we had our land and approval in just two days.

Current Scenario
Tata Motors Ratan Tata chose Sanand , 30 kms away from Ahmedabad, for the Tata Nano project . The mother plant, will come up on an area of about 1100 acres in Sanand. The new Nano Plant could have a capacity of 5,00,000 units, compared to 3,00,000 for Singur. Gujarat has also agreed to match all the incentives offered by West Bengal government.

Conclusion :Tata Nanos Controversy

The delay in the launch of Tata Nano was caused largely due to the Singur controversy. The construction for this factory on which the Nano was supposed to becoming up started in the month of July 2007 but soon faced opposition from apolitical party. The trinamool congress led by Mamata Banerjee protested against the manufacture of the car and the plant saying that the land was to be used for agrarian purposes and was wrongfully allotted to Tata Motors for making the Nano. There were protests all over the state and even in the capital city of New Delhi. Activists of the Trinamool congress stood outside the main gate of the plant and protested against any work in the plant. On October 3, 2008, after a brief meeting with the Chief Minister, Ratan Tata declared his decision to move the Nano Project out of West Bengal. Tata mentioned his frustration with the opposition movement at Singur Project led by Trinamool Congress chief Ms.

Mamata Banerjee. Ms Banerjee responded by referring to actions by Tatas and the state government. The CM of Gujarat, Narendra Modi then sent an SMS to Mr. Ratan Tata, which simply said "Suswagatham", to persuade him to relocate the Nano factory to Gujarat. It took 14 months to build a new factory in Sanand, Gujarat compared with 28 months for the Singur factory. Tata aimed for a starting price of one lakh, or 100,000, rupees. This was approximately US$2000 at the time. As of December, 2010, the cheapest Nano costs around US$2900. Rapidly rising material prices (up 13% to 23% over the cars development time), are blamed for these price rises. In late October 2010, Reuters reported that prices will be raised by an average of 9,000 rupees (US$202) from November because of rising material costs and as of the beginning of 2011 the Nano costs 140,000 rupees (more than US$3,000) Finally the dream project of Ratan Tata got completed, Nano peoples car launched successfully after facing so many hurdles