Bangladesh-made Nano by April 2013

Bangladesh conglomerate was planning to import 2,000 Nano cars this year, was looking to import more based on demand from customers

The Nitol-Niloy Group, distributors of Tata vehicles in Bangladesh, said that it will be coming up with domestically assembled Tata Nano by April next year.

“We are now working on manufacturing of Tata Ace pick range and will look into Nano manufacturing after that. Nano will probably come by April 2013,” said Abdul Matlub Ahmed, Chairman of the Nitol-Niloy Group.

The Bangladesh conglomerate was planning to import 2,000 Nano cars this year and was looking to import more based on demand from customers. Ahmed added that before introducing Nano, it may also look for launching of Tata Indigo CS. It started assembling Tata's commercial vehicles from 1991 onwards. However, Tata Motors did not respond to Business Standard queries.

Earlier, Tata Motors had said that it was considering assembling Nano abroad through export of completely knocked down units. Tata had started export of Nano to Sri Lanka and Nepal last year and is reportedly eyeing other markets like Thailand, Indonesia and Myanmar.

Both the groups were also planning to come up with “Nitol-Tata” shoes and bicycles. This was a project between Tata International and Nitol Niloy, who had signed a memorandum of understanding in April 2010 to manufacture shoes and bicycles in Bangladesh.

The Tata group even had plans to come up with the largest foreign direct investments (FDI) in Bangladesh of $3 billion, but was derailed in 2008.  The plan included setting up of a steel mill, fertiliser factory, gas-fired and coal-fired power plants.