Tata Motors’ brand new plant for the Tata Nano at Sanand, in Gujarat, was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi, in the presence of the Chairman of Tata Motors, Mr. Ratan N. Tata, Ministers of the Gujarat Government, top officials, vendor and supplier partners, dealers and associates of the company.
The plant’s inauguration marks the culmination of the company’s goal of making the Tata Nano freely available to hundreds of thousands of families, desirous of the car. The capacity of the plant, to begin with, will be 250,000 cars per year to be achieved in phases, and with some balancing is expandable up to 350,000 cars per year. Further capacity expansion has also been provided for in this location.
Deliveries from the plant, including BS4 Tata Nanos, will begin this month. The output, supplemented by the facility at Pantnagar (Uttarakhand), will in the immediate phase complete pending orders from the booking process of 2009.
Built in a record time of 14 months starting November 2008, the integrated facility comprises Tata Motors’ own plant, spread over 725 acres, and an adjacent vendor park, spread over 375 acres, to house key component manufacturers for the Tata Nano.
In line with latest world-class manufacturing practices, the Tata Nano plant has been equipped with state-of-the-art equipment. They include sophisticated robotics and high speed production lines. Conscious of the critical need of environment protection, the plant has energy-efficient motors, variable frequency drives, and systems to measure and monitor carbon levels.
These are supplemented with extensive tree plantation, sustainable water sourcing through water harvesting and ground water recharging and harnessing solar energy for illumination.
At the vendor park, plots have already been allocated to 41 vendors. More will be accommodated subsequently. Vendors, accounting for about 80% of the value of components to be sourced from the park, have already begun construction. In the interim, they will supply the plant from their existing facilities in the country.
To celebrate the inauguration of the plant, a fleet of Tata Nanos driven by prospective customers, who participated in an online contest on www.tatanano.com, began a country-wide drive, called the Nano Superdrive, from Sanand.
