New Delhi, March 01: The Tatas' Nano is on a pilgrimage
across the country and will visit sacred sites of all religions before it hits the road commercially.
According to industry sources, Tata Motors is taking
the Nano, touted as the world's cheapest car, to as many
pilgrimages as possible of all religions.
The company is currently conducting test drives of the
car in different cities and terrains to check the Nano's
endurance, they added.
The Nano has already sought blessings at Golden Temple in
Amritsar and Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti's dargah in Ajmer.
When contacted, a company spokesperson said, "The Nano is
being tested in different parts of the country. The route
included passing through cities like Ajmer and Amritsar,
and our colleagues considered it appropriate to visit the
pilgrimage centres."
The company will launch the Rs 1-lakh car on March 23 in
Mumbai and bookings would start from April this year. The Nano
was unveiled at the Auto Expo in Delhi in January 2008.
The Nano was to be launched in the second half of 2008,
but the process got delayed after the company was forced to
shift the manufacturing base from Singur in West Bengal to
Sanand in Gujarat.
The company's website, featuring the 'Nano', has
registered 30 million hits or visits since the car, with a
base-price tag of Rs 1,00,000, was first unveiled.
Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata had said last year that
he would retain the price tag at Rs 1,00,000 (for the base
model) despite input costs shooting up. But since then, steel
prices have plunged by up to 40 per cent from early
2008-levels and overall demand in the economy too has
witnessed a slump.
The company had announced the low-cost car project in
2006.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, March 01, 2009, 00:00