Fiat Auto's Indian joint venture partner Tata Motors has announced that it has accepted an offer from the Italian carmaker to become involved in its ground-breaking Rs1 lakh low-cost passenger car which is on schedule to be commercialised from 2008. "Fiat has made an offer to be part of the Rs 1 lakh car project and we have accepted the offer," Tata Motors' Managing Director Ravi Kant told Indian reporters yesterday.

However there was confusion as to the role Fiat Auto will play as production plans for the new car are at an advanced stage, with a purpose-built facility now taking shape, and the first prototypes already testing on the Indian roads. When asked to elaborate on this matter Kant said, "We are looking at what further can be done. Perhaps, some fine-tuning can be done. At the stage at which we are today, where design and styling has been frozen and vendors have been fixed, the scope for involvement is limited. The prototypes are under testing. The required plant and machinery are being taken to the site with four hundred people at work, of which two hundred and fifty are from Singur," Kant said.

Tata Motors and Fiat Auto recently formed an equally split joint venture to set up a new facility at Ranjangaon in Maharashtra, with an initial investment of Rs 4,000 crore to manufacture passenger cars for both firms. The joint venture project envisions production of more than 100,000 cars and 200,000 engines and transmissions a year from the beginning of 2008. Fiat will bring assembly of the Grande Punto as well as the new Linea sedan to the equation in India within the next year. There is also much talk of a joint venture being imminently in the pipeline between Fiat's Iveco trucks division and Tata Motors, who are also a leading regional manufacturer of trucks. The two firms also have a joint venture project in South America which will see a new 1-ton Tata pickup being manufactured at Fiat's plant at Cordoba in Argentina, and being badged by both firms.

Tata Motors’ contractors and sub-contractors have begun to receive support from Singur villages in the civil construction of Tata Motors’ Small Car plant, the company announced this week. The number of people working on various unskilled jobs has already increased to about 250, on a daily basis, within three days of the civil construction beginning on January 21.
 

The work at present comprises constructing the boundary wall for the plant, preliminary preparations for roads inside the site, demarcating locations for various plant facilities, and unloading of construction material. Tata Motors said that its contractors and sub-contractors will deploy appropriate and necessary people from the Singur area on various unskilled jobs and also skilled assignments, like masons, fitters etc, as per the project’s needs. The response of the last three days is indicative of the benefits of the project, as also its acceptance in the community.

Tata Motors has now appointed close to seventy outside suppliers to provide components and services to the Singur plant where the Rs1 lakh car will be assembled, Kant told the reporters yesterday. The delays in acquiring the land for the factory has put the project behind schedule, but Kant was confident that the tough roll out targets could still be maintained. "We are committed to work as a team to achieve the target set by our chairman to roll out the 1 lakh car by 2008 still holds," he said.

He was also asked to comment on reports that the new low-cost car could be exported in the future, but would be drawn with specifics. "That will also come," he told reporters, adding that Tata had received much interest in the project. "We will choose the appropriate geography, market and partners at the appropriate time, right now we will focus on the domestic market."