Tata Motors' brand new plant for the Tata Nano at Sanand, in Ahmedabad district of Gujarat, was inaugurated today by the Honourable Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi, in the presence of the Chairman of Tata Sons and Tata Motors, Mr. Ratan N. Tata, Ministers of the Gujarat Government, top officials, vendor and supplier partners, dealers and associates of the company.
The plant's inauguration marks the culmination of the company's goal of making the Tata Nano freely available to hundreds of thousands of families, desirous of the car. The capacity of the plant, to begin with, will be 250,000 cars per year to be achieved in phases, and with some balancing is expandable up to 350,000 cars per year. Further capacity expansion has also been provided for in this location.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Tata said, "We are happy that the Tata Nano has found its home at Sanand in Gujarat. We would like to thank everyone who has made this possible, particularly the Honourable Chief Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. We would also like to thank the people of Gujarat on this occasion. I am glad that we will now be able to manufacture the Tata Nano at a plant, set up in record time by the Tata Motors team who have and continue to receive full support from the Gujarat administration. This will now allow us to better meet the strong demand for the Tata Nano across the country."
Deliveries from the plant, including BS4 Tata Nanos, will begin this month. The output, supplemented by the facility at Pantnagar (Uttarakhand), will in the immediate phase complete pending orders from the booking process of 2009.
Built in a record time of 14 months starting November 2008, the integrated facility comprises Tata Motors' own plant, spread over 725 acres, and an adjacent vendor park, spread over 375 acres, to house key component manufacturers for the Tata Nano.
In line with latest world-class manufacturing practices, the Tata Nano plant has been equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. They include sophisticated robotics and high speed production lines. Conscious of the critical need of environment protection, the plant has energy-efficient motors, variable frequency drives, and systems to measure and monitor carbon levels. These are supplemented with extensive tree plantation, sustainable water sourcing through water harvesting and ground water recharging and harnessing solar energy for illumination.
In November 2008 itself, simultaneously with the construction of the plant, Tata Motors also began its community development activities in the area. These initiatives, encompassing 20 villages in a 20-km radius, are on health, education, employability and environment enhancement. The initiatives have already led to provision of drinking water for about 10,000 residents, sanitation for about 600 households, competency upgradation of about 140 primary school teachers, employability enhancement for about 500 men and women. The company is committed to developing the area, converting it into a beehive of inclusive growth.
The plant has already directly employed 2,400 individuals. The recruitment exercise covered about 156 ITIs in Gujarat. As the capacity is increased, the project, along with the vendor park, is expected to generate about 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.
At the vendor park, plots have already been allocated to 41 vendors. More will be accommodated subsequently. Vendors, accounting for about 80% of the value of components to be sourced from the park, have already begun construction. In the interim, they will supply the plant from their existing facilities in the country.
To celebrate the inauguration of the plant, a fleet of Tata Nanos driven by prospective customers, who participated in an online contest on tatanano.com, began a country-wide drive, called the Nano Superdrive, from Sanand today. The drive was flagged off by Mr. Tata. The drive will cover 15,000 km touching 36 cities across the country, before converging at Sanand on June 28. Glimpses of the drive, with images and blogs, will be available on www.tatanano.com.
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