Despite the Singur impasse, Tata Motors dealers in West Bengal are going ahead with plans of selling the Nano through a chain of new F-Plus showrooms, while admitting that the car could be delayed.
"We are in final stages of negotiation for three outlets in Diamond Harbour, Hooghly and Krishnanagar, while we are almost ready with two others at Barasat and Howrah," said Binod Agarwal, director of Lexus Motors, the highest selling Tata dealership in the region, operating numerous commercial vehicles showrooms across all the district capitals in the state.
"We are not slowing down with our plans," Agarwal clarified. These new showrooms would be typically 600-1,000 square feet outlets that would showcase the entire passenger car range of the company.
As of now, there were no plans of selling the Nano from commercial vehicle dealerships of Tata Motors that spanned the entire rural geography, Agarwal said. Dealers contacted by Business Standard said that they expected an official line of communication from the company within the last week of September detailing the sales, marketing and branding strategies for the Nano.
Since the launch of the car in the Delhi Auto Expo in January, Tata Motors Ltd had not sent any official notification to its dealers specifying a roll-out time. The company had promised a launch in the October-December quarter.
Asansol based TML dealer P J Janee & Co said that it had not yet fine-tuned the sales strategy for the car. For example, it could be booked online or manually, the dealer said.
The dealer was getting as many as 100 queries a day for the Nano, which has now become perhaps the most awaited car of the year.
P J Janee was looking at new showrooms at Contai, Arambagh and Sreerampore, apart from its existing network of five outlets in the Asansol region.
Kolkata based K B Motors was planning three F-Plus showrooms at Kalyani, Howrah and Hooghly.
KB said it was going ahead with its plans despite the recent siege by the Trinamool Congress at Singur that was threatening to delay Nano's launch.
Work at the Nano Plant site halted indefinitely since Friday August 29 as TML company decided not to send its officials and workers to Singur citing security concerns.
According to sources, the company had asked its officials to report for in-house programmes and to complete administrative work.
