Tatas have time till Aug to vacate Singur

After deciding to withdraw the Nano project from Singur in West Bengal in October last year, Tata Motors has sought 10 months time from West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation to remove the equipment.

"Tata Motors had written to WBIDC in November last year that it will require 10 months to remove the equipment in Singur," WBIDC managing director Subrata Gupta told PTI.

Tata Motors had abandoned the project at Singur following political opposition and subsequently shifted it to Sanand in Guajarat.

Gupta said that the company, according to the Tata Motors communication to WBIDC, has time till August 2009.

Meanwhile, he said that since the land was given on lease by WBIDC to Tata Motors, the company was required to pay the lease rental due on March 15 with a grace period of three months.

Initially, Tata Motors was supposed to pay an annual lease rent of Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million).

If the company failed to pay within the grace period, then it will attract interest payment. "This is all as per the legal requirement and the process which WBIDC has set in motion," Gupta said.

Asked whether paying the lease rental to WBIDC was a stamp of surity that Tata Motors was keen to retain the land at Singur Gupta said, "Here is no correlation between the two. In any case, they will have to pay the first lease rent since it falls within the 10-month period."

The Singur plant was at an advanced stage of construction at the time of withdrawal of the project.

However, a recent statement by the West Bengal industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen had rekindled the hope that Tata Motors was possibly not deserting Singur.

"The state has lost the chance of being the first production unit. However, there may a possibility if local objections are resolved through dialogue because ultimately Tata Motors may go for more than one unit. But the decision rests with Tata Motors," Sen had said.

Reacting to this, Tata Motors said it would discuss its plans for the leased plot with the state government, but declined to give further details.

The company rolled out the small car Nano on March 23 produced at the Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand. The Sanand plant is likely to go onstream by 2011.