Nano grabs global attention on launch of Sanand plant

The roll out of 'people's car' Nano from the Sanand plant today attracted global attention, with delegates from Italy and the US travelling to the country to assess the future of this small car.

Nano, the world's cheapest car, has attracted the attention of Cornell University in the US, which plans to hold an exhibition of this small car project in the US.

"We are here to look at what shall be the future of this car. And maybe sometime later, we can organise an exhibition of this car project in the US," visiting Assistant Professor Aleksandr Mergold of Cornell University told PTI.

"We came here with our team to find out what's going on here," Mergold said.

Mergold, along with his team members, interacted with officials of Tata Motors at the assembly line of the plant and jotted down details of the car manufacturing process and clicked photographs of the unit.

Among the special invitees at the inauguration ceremony, Mergold was here with a team of four people from the university to assess the future of this car.

Taking the Nano a step forward from being a people's car in India, Tata Motors had unveiled the European version of the car in Geneva in March, 2009.

Another special invitee from Italy, Trilix Design Director Justyn Norek said "I am here as part of my association with Tata Motors."

"We are cooperating with Tata Motors regarding engineering of the car, we are closely linked with the styling of this Indian car," Norek told PTI.

Norex has formed a design and engineering solution providing company in Italy, which is working in close coordination with Tata Motors for its Nano car project. "We have had a long association with Tata and therefore, we are here to see how it's being manufactured," Norek said.

"Nano's European version has been launched and work for its production is likely to commence next year, I don't know when," he said.

Spread over an area of about 1,100 acres, the new facility at Sanand has been created at a cost of approximately Rs 2,000 crore.

Till now, production of the Nano -- touted as the world's cheapest car with a factory gate price of Rs 1,00,000 (a little over $2,000) -- has been limited at Tata Motors' Pantnagar plant in Himachal Pradesh.