Tata Motors' Sanand plant likely to begin production in June

Tata Motors’ Nano plant at Sanand is ready for commercial production, according to sources.

The first unit of the people’s car from the plant would be rolled out in the first week of June, three sources privy to the development said. However, the exact date of the launch ceremony is not known.

According to sources in the state government, Tata Sons Chairman Ratan N Tata is expected to be in town on June 2 and the plant will be inaugurated by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Tata Motors officials were unavailable for comment.

The Sanand plant started trial runs in December last year. “The plant is in the process of increasing production from 100-120 Nanos per day to around 200 cars per day and 3,000-4000 cars are now ready for roll out,” said a Rajkot-based vendor, who did not want to be identified.

Tata Motors relocated to Sanand from Singur in West Bengal in October 2008. It has been supplying the small car to the first 100,000 allottees from its Pune and Pantnagar plants. Over 30,000 cars have been delivered and Tata Motors hopes to complete the delivery of the rest by the year-end.

The Pantnagar plant produces around 200 Nanos per day. The company is trying to speed up the delivery process by ramping up capacity at Sanand. Several allottees have cancelled their bookings due to delay in delivery.

Meanwhile, other car makers are trying to replicate the Nano story with low-cost mass segment cars. Hyundai’s 800cc Rs 2 lakh car, likely to be launched in the second half of next year, will directly compete with the Nano. Bajaj’s small car is slated for 2012.

Tata Motors’ passenger car business reported a 70 per cent rise in sales in April at 24,902 vehicles (23,102 Tata + 1,800 Fiat). The company sold 3,525 Nanos, 9,036 Indicas, 7,201 Indigos and 3,340 units of the Sumo and Safari combined.