Hope at Tata's Nano factory in India as protestors agree to talks

Sep 2, 2008, 12:37 GMT

New Delhi - Work at the Tata Motors factory in eastern India that is producing the world's cheapest car, the Nano, remained stalled for the fifth day Tuesday but there was a glimmer of hope as demonstrators demanding the return of farmland acquired for the project agreed to talks.

Thousands of farmers and political activists have laid siege around the factory in Singur, 40 kilometres north of West Bengal's state capital Kolkata, since Sunday.

Leaders of the agitation met with West Bengal Governor Gopal Gandhi on Sunday and said they were ready for a dialogue overseen by an 'impartial mediator.'

The West Bengal government has also backed down, with the ruling Left Front chairman Biman Bose saying Monday that the government was ready for an unconditional dialogue, including a debate on the disputed 400 acres.

Tata Motor's Nano factory is being built on 997 acres of land acquired from farmers of which 400 acres is owned by farmers who have refused compensation and claim the government has forcibly seized their land.

Tata Motors, which was planning to roll out its first Nanos from the Singur factory in October, is reported to be now considering producing a limited number of cars from an already established plant in Pantnagar in Uttarakhand state.

Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata had warned in August that he was prepared to abandon the Singur plant and move the Nano project to another state if the stalemate continued despite having invested over 350 million dollars in the project.

Workers remained away from the factory on Tuesday with the factory management saying the atmosphere was not conducive for normal work.

Hundreds of protestors from the Trinamool Congress, farmers and members of some smaller left parties along with a few Maoist organizations continued their sit-in demonstration outside the factory.

Banerjee has said the agitation would continue while negotiations were taken up.