First Tata Nano to roll out of Sanand plant by 2010 end

The first Tata Nano manufactured at the Tata’s Rs 2000 crore-Sanand plant, near Ahmedabad, will be rolled out by end 2010.

Tata Motors expects to put critical infrastructure of the Sanand, Gujarat plant in place, by end-November 2009.

Tata Motors is using multiple vendors to have the Sanand plant up and running as soon as possible.

Currently, the construction of ancillary plant buildings are in progress, and is expected to be completed by end-March 2009. Phenix Varco Pruden, pre-engineered steel structure building manufacturer, has the Rs 50 crore ($9.66 million) contract for constructing the ancillary plant buildings using pre-engineered steel structures.

Tata Motors said, on March 9, 2009, that the construction of the ancillary buildings will require as much as 4000 tonnes of steel components, designed with a heavy load bearing capacity with a mainframe structure to support the full load.

The size of the ancillary plants will vary according to the requirements of various units.

Meanwhile, the construction of the power train facility, press shop, and assembly line is in progress.

Tata had pulled out of its Singur plant, in which it had invested Rs 1500 crore, in October 2008.

Tata officials said that it would take almost a year to move components from the unfinished plant at Singur to the Sanand site, because of the distance involved and the complexity of the machinery and the plant components that will have to be dismantled from the Singur plant.

Tata had decided to pull out of the Singur plant, in West Bengal, because of the opposition by Trinamool Congress against the production of the Tata Nano in Singur. After exploring the the possibility of setting up the plant in Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Tata Motors chose Gujarat, where they were given 1100 acres of land in Sanand, by the Gujarat government.

The need to put the Sanand plant in place quickly is critical for Tata Motors to meet the burgeoning demand for the Tata Nano.

The Tata Nano will be commercially launched on March 23, 2009. Initially, after the launch, Tata Nano will register bookings of one lakh Tata Nanos till the Sanand plant is ready.

Till then, the Tata Nano will be manufactured Tata’s Pantnagar plant in Uttarakhand, and its manufacturing facility in Pune.

The Tata Nano plant in Sanand is expected to roll out 5,00,000 cars compared to 3,00,000 cars from Singur.

Earlier, Tata Motors was planning to accept bookings for the Tata Nano from the second week of April 2009, but now it has announced that it will take bookings from March 23, 2009, the day of Tata Nano’s commercial launch.

The booking amount of the Tata Nano is Rs 70000.