By IANS,
Mumbai : Eminent industrialist Jamshyd N. Godrej Friday came out in support of the Tata Group’s Nano car project in Singur, West Bengal, terming as “unfortunate” the current political turmoil over the factory.
Godrej, the chairman and managing director of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co. Ltd, said that if Nano was compelled to shift operations, it would “be a setback for not just West Bengal but the entire country”.
He pointed out that the Nano was a statement of “the coming of age of Indian manufacturing and places India’s innovation skills high up on the world map”.
Godrej added that Nano was important for India and must be seen on the roads on time.
“The world deserves it and India deserves no less,” he asserted.
“It is, therefore, very unfortunate that the entire project is facing a political situation which it does not warrant,” Godrej said.
He urged the political parties involved to do their best to ensure that the concerns and issues of all the stakeholders are kept in mind, including the companies in question and the original owners of the land.
Nano, the world’s cheapest car priced at Rs.100,000, is set to roll out from the Tata Motors’ stable in October. However, in view of the constant unrest the project has been facing over land acquisition by the opposition Trinamool Congress, Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata had last week warned that he may consider pulling out of the state.
The Krishijami Jiban Jibika Raksha Committee (KJJRC), backed by the Trinamool Congress, has been continuing an indefinite protest at the Nano factory site since Sunday demanding the return of 400 acres of land taken from “unwilling farmers” to set up ancillary industries.
On Thursday evening, more than 600 engineers and executives of Tata Motors remained trapped for three hours inside the factory as Paschimbanga Kshet Mazur Samiti (PKMS) activists, squatted on the Durgapur Expressway near the gate leading to the factory.
The automobile major said that workers did not attend work Friday after Thursday’s incident.