It's finally official. Tata Motors' Nano will not roll out of Singur. After a one-hour meeting with the West Bengal Chief Minister and Chairman Ratan Tata said a decision had been taken to move the project out of the State. He blamed the decision on the agitation faced by the company in the State, and the threat to employee and vendor safety.

 

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Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI is worried about the international investors who will have to rethink West Bengal as an investment destination, given the current situation. Mitra said that globally people are interested in India and Indian investment. However, he believes that there are two sides of the story - one is if Nano comes out from another factory and rolls out, after three-four months people may forget about this mishap because Nano will become an integral part of India’s future and global positioning of India.

 

“We got to have one or two other success stories in the next six months in West Bengal. So, it makes them to rethink about that State. They will go to other states but for West Bengal to attract them, there must be some success stories for the state,” Mitra said.

 

Also read:    Nano exits Singur: What happens to Tata's WB land?

 

 

 

R Seshasayee, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland also agrees that it sends out a bad message for global investors. “This would certainly depict us as a nation which is very wobbly on its feet and it is not in a position to ensure basic availability of law and order security,” he said.  

 

Seshasayee further stated that this is very sad commentary on the state of politics in this country. “If Mr. Tata says that he is unsure of security for his people and this is not about land, this is not about anything else. It is about security, which is the primordial need for any industrial activity,” he said.

 

Venu Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director, TVS Motors feels that Tata’s pullout is going to delay the launch of the new plant by a year or so. Fortunately for Tatas, Uttarakhand does have some capacity to make small vehicle and the paint plant is in place, he added. “The pressing can be done. Tatas will start ramping up from Uttarakhand and will face some delays to ramp up into large volume production till the new location is decided.”

 

 

Also read:    Vendors support Tatas despite Singur exit

 

 

Also read:    Exiting Singur as have promises to keep: Ratan Tata