A newly purchased Nano car that was parked in a housing society in Ahmedabad reportedly caught fire on Sunday morning. No one was hurt in the incident. The car, whose registration number is GJ-1KA-4648, was parked at Vaibhav Gokul bungalows behind Rajpath Club on SG Highway. Local sources said that some technical fault in the car battery had triggered the fire.
A watchman at the bungalow told DNA that smoke was seen coming out of the car in the morning. “One of the neighbours phoned some Tata Motors officials about the fire,” the watchman said. “Company personnel arrived soon after and put out the fire. The car was then immediately moved from the place by the owner.” Despite much effort by journalists, the identity of the car’s owner could not be established.
When the mediapersons requested that they be allowed inside the bungalow to talk to the car owner, their request was denied. The owner had apparently left instructions that no media-person should be allowed to enter the bungalow premises. Meanwhile, a Tata Motors official based in Ahmedabad alleged that the Nano owner was now ‘blackmailing’ the company.
“When his Nano caught fire, he went to Cargo Motors, a Tata Motors dealer in Ahmedabad, and demanded Rs5 lakh in compensation,” the official said. “When the dealer refused, he demanded a Fiat Linea or a Tata Safari as replacement for the Nano. Now he is asking for a Mercedes. “ Ravi Suri of Cargo Motors confirmed this and said that the customer was ‘blackmailing’ the company and demanding a Mercedes as replacement for the Nano. “We need to find out the technical reasons why the car caught fire,” Suri said
Debashish Ray, head, corporate communications, Tata Motors Limited, Mumbai said, “Only after we have examined the car, shall we be able to know what the problem was and what went wrong. If we find a manufacturing defect, we will replace the car. But we haven’t checked the car yet, so we can’t say anything.”
Incidentally, no police complaint has been lodged in this connection by either side.
