'Singur was close to Ratan Tata's heart'

Jamshedpur: Singur project in West Bengal, where Nano cars were supposed to be manufactured, was very close to Ratan Naval Tata’s heart, who was stradling businesses, ranging from salt to software, recalled Paritosh Sen, one of the then senior officials handling the upcoming unit.

Walking down the memory lane about his experiences with the “entrepreneur visionary”, the IIT-Kharagpur graduate said, “It was very painful for Ratan Tata to accept that the project which would benefit the common man had to be aborted. For him, a company meant not only profit and a strong balancesheet but creation of jobs for thousands directly and lakhs indirectly.”

Sen said, “The Tatas on Sep 23, 2008, decided to stop work at Singur site and Ratan Tata announced in Kolkata on October 3 that the group was leaving the place. I still remember the pain in the teary-eyed man, who could have revived industrialisation in Bengal. Singur was close to Hind Motors, where ambassador cars were manufactured. The area could have transformed into an industrial belt as several vehicle ancillary units come up near the main plant, as has happened in Adityapur due to Tata Motors in Jamshedpur.”

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