In fact, for the same reason Tata Motors has been pushing for dropping anchor at Guptamani, which will be 15 km from Tata Metallics and 100 km from Jamshedpur.

But the West Bengal government has been pushing for a location closer to Kolkata.

Now that it is coming, the project will doubtlessly go down as an immensely prestigious acquisition for West Bengal and Bhattacharjee and his team has been zealously pursuing it for a while. It will require a site of 7,00-1,000 acres and bring in an investment of Rs 1,000 crore.

Ratan Tata had proposed the ambitious Rs 1-lakh car (as it has come to be known) at the Frankfurt Motorshow in 2003.

Since then all eyes have been trained on the progress of the project and there was perhaps no press conference where Tata had not been quizzed about it.

The Maruti 800, its closest rival which almost drove out the Ambassador and Fiat from the Indian roads to emerge as the country’s largest-selling car, is a 796-cc, three-cylinder car. Currently priced at over Rs 2 lakh, this small car has remained an enigma, selling almost 15,000 units per month.

Ratan Tata talked of a roomier car that would drive the imagination of the Indian middle-class.

He has set himself a deadline of 2007-08 to deliver it.

The Tata car is likely to be powered by a 700 cc, Euro IV compliant petrol version. It will reportedly have a rear wheel-powered engine located at the back.

... contd.