By IANS,
Mumbai : Auto major Tata Motors is keeping its options open on shifting out of West Bengal’s simmering Singur area the plant to make the world’s cheapest car Nano, according to a company official.
Ever since company chairman Ratan Tata indicated his decision to shift out of Singur, Tata Motors has been besieged with offers from many states, including Maharashtra, offering them all facilities to relocate the Nano plant.
However, the official said here Friday that the company has not taken any decision on the new location or a specific timeframe within which Nano operations would be shifted out of West Bengal.
A state government official, confirming that Tata had written to Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh recently, thanking him for the offer, said there has been no further development.
“Since the chief minister is on a tour abroad and is expected to return only next week, we hope to take the matter forward after that,” the official said.
The official spokesperson for Tata Motors told IANS that apart from the letter written by Tata, as a gesture of courtesy to the chief minister for his offer, no decision has been taken where or when to relocate the Nano plant.
Similar offers have come from several other states and the company would examine all in detail before finalising its future plans, he added.
Early this month, Deshmukh had offered land and other facilities to Tata Motors “anywhere in the state” for shifting the Nano plant, and renewed his offer later.
A string of states – Karnataka, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Gujarat has made similar offers. So has Sri Lanka.