By IANS,
Sanand (Gujarat) : Even as Tata Motors announced the commercial rollout of the small car Nano in Mumbai Monday, company officials said the main factory here, 45 km from Ahmedabad, will be up and running by this year-end.
The $62.5-billion company had zeroed-in on this location after it was forced to pull out of Singur in West Bengal following protests by some farmers backed by the opposition parties over acquisition of land for the project.
The Rs.2,000-crore (Rs.20-billion) Sanand plant will have a capacity to roll out 250,000 cars annually.
Tata Motors officials said they were also in the process of coming out with an entire range of merchandise to promote the Nano brand. These include caps, key chains, T-shirts and baseball bats.
Dealers of Tata Motors are in the process of preparing a dedicated team for brand promotion and bookings for Nano, the world’s least expensive car at Rs.100,000 or $2,000.
Tata Motors hope to start from the second week of April advance bookings for the 624-cc jellybean car, which has a snub nose, a sloping roof and just about room for five to squeeze in.
Company officials said arrangements were being made to accept bookings with the existing dealers of Tata Motors, at Westside apparel chain and Croma appliances stores promoted by the group, and select branches of the State Bank of India.
Touted as the next revolution in automobiles after the legendary Model T, the Nano will be available in three variants – standard, deluxe and luxury. The base model will have no air-conditioning.
The four-door, five-seat car has a small 33-bhp engine at the rear and is targeted at the strong Indian middle class population that aspires to trade its two-wheelers for a much safer vehicle at an affordable cost.
With a length of 3.1 metres, a width of 1.5 metres and a height of 1.6 metres, Nano also has adequate ground clearance and can effortlessly manoeuvre on busy roads in cities as well as in rural areas.