CM bullish on investment

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has said he is upbeat about the Tata Group making a "significant" investment to pursue new business opportunities in the state, in addition to the proposed expansion of its Pantnagar auto manufacturing plant. "I am confident that Tata Group will invest more in our state, besides expanding its existing Pantnagar auto manufacturing plant," Nishank told reporters here.

A high-level team of top officials from different Tata Group companies visited Dehradun last week as a follow-up to Chairman Ratan Tata's visit here on November 15, 2010. During their visit, they evinced interest in different sectors like power, housing, tourism and IT sectors. Nishank also said the Tata group is in the process of expanding its Pantnagar plant by raising the production capacity from 2.5 lakh units to 5 lakh units per annum. Tata produces its Nano compact car model, as well as light commercial vehicles at the Pantnagar facility. Recalling his close interaction with Tata, Nishank said he had a one-to-one meeting with Tata for nearly one-and-a-half hours, during which they discussed various issues. "Although, that was our first meeting, now we are in regular touch with each other. I am confident that a substantial investment will come from the Tata Group to our state," Nishank said. Group officials from various companies like TCS and Tata Motors last week held talks with Nishank, who wanted the Tata Group to invest Rs 10,000 crore in the hill state to create about 50,000 jobs. Top government officials had prepared a detailed investment opportunity report for the Tata Group after the November 15 meeting between Tata and Nishank. On November 15 last year, Tata visited Dehradun, where he had expressed a desire to explore new opportunities for investment in the hill state.

Tata Motors has already put up a manufacturing facility at Pantnagar at an investment of over Rs 1,000 crore. "The talks were positive and highly satisfactory and we are hopeful that we will get a positive response from Tata," said Nishank. In addition to the Chief Minister, the Tata Group officials held a separate meeting with Chief Secretary Subhash Kumar and a group of secretaries at the State Secretariat last week.