Tata Motors of India has received one of its strongest offers yet to move its controversial plant to make the world’s cheapest car, the Nano, from West Bengal.

The offer from southern Karnataka state for a 1,000-acre plot comes ahead of an important moment today in the stand-off in West Bengal, with the opposition party that is protesting against the project set to meet the state governor.
“We are watching the situation and actively looking at alternatives,”said Ravi Kant, Tata Motors managing director, after a meeting with BS Yediyurappa, the Karnataka chief minister who is based in Bangalore, the state capital.
At least 13 rival state governments have flocked to Tata with offers of land for the embattled Nano project after the group was forced to suspend work at its partially built plant in Singur, near Calcutta.
The opposition Trinamool Congress wants the Tata group to return part of the 1,000-acre factory site it says was forcibly taken from farmers by West Bengal’s state government to make way for the plant.
The Tata group has threatened to relocate the plant, saying protesters were “violently obstructing” construction workers from entering the site.
The group wants to launch the Nano with a starting price of Rs100,000 ($2,158) next month, but any move to shift the plant to another state will likely delay full-scale production by at least a year.
A person familiar with Tata’s plans said the Karnataka state government was offering Tata about 1,000 acres near one of the group’s existing production hubs in the industrial zone of Dharwad. About half of this land the government already owns while the rest is located in a barren area that would be relatively easy to acquire compared with the rich farmland in Singur.
The Tata group is developing one of the world’s biggest bus-making facilities at Dharwad. The comments from Mr Kant come as the Trinamool Congress awaits the return to Calcutta today of Gopal Krishna Gandhi, West Bengal’s governor, to discuss whether it will resume full-scale protests against the Nano plant.
(Source: Financial Times)