New Delhi: 'Welcome'. The one-word SMS from then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi to Ratan Tata led to the Tata Nano project being shifted from West Bengal to Gujarat in 2008, ending one chapter and beginning another in the history of what was billed to be the world's cheapest car.
Led by Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee, fierce protests had broken out in West Bengal against the acquisition of land by the then-ruling Left Front government led by chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in 2006 for the Tata Group to set up Nano car production unit in Singur.
Modi had sent the SMS to Tata when the industrialist was addressing a press conference in Kolkata announcing the exit of the Tata Nano project from West Bengal.
"When Ratan Tata said in a press conference in Kolkata that they are leaving West Bengal, I sent him a short SMS saying 'welcome'. And now you can see what a Re 1 (worth) SMS can do," Modi had said inaugurating the Tata Nano plant at Sanand in 2010 built at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore.
Tata announced the exit of the Nano project from West Bengal on October 3, 2008, and declared that the plant would be set up at Sanand in Gujarat within the next four days. Modi had then said many countries were keen to offer all help for the Nano project, but the Gujarat government officers ensured that the project did not go out of India.
He had also praised the government machinery saying it was matching the corporate culture in efficiency, and playing a major role in the fast development of the state. At the rollout of the first Nano car from the plant in Sanand in June 2010, Tata lauded the Gujarat government, led by Modi, for helping to set up the facility.
"When we searched for another Nano plant, we wanted to move to peace and harmony. Gujarat stood out against all others in guaranteeing us all that we needed. 'It was not just Tata's project, it is our project', Modi told us. We owe a great lot of gratitude for the support and confidence placed in us," Tata said. Tata discontinued the production of Nano cars in 2018.
