chlorine leak at a private residential area in Jamshedpur affected about 300 residents on May 27. The cause of the leak was traced to Tata Motors dumping an unused chlorine cylinder, once used by its water treatment plant, in the vicinity of the housing colony about 10 years ago. The chlorine started leaking after the cylinder rusted and its walls gave away due to the pressure of the gas.

Managing Director Ravi Kant meets Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Project cost increases to Rs. 2,000 crore Evokes worldwide interest to set up a plant MAKING THINGS HAPPEN: Ravi Kanth, Managing Director, Tata Motors, addressing the media after a meeting with the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, at the State Secretariat in Kolkata on Saturday. KOLKATA: The Tata small car Nano is set to start trial runs by August prior to its scheduled roll-out during Durga Puja (in October) Tata Motors Managing Director Ravi Kant said.

INFLATIONARY pressures have applied brakes on the growth plans of carmakers reeling under the pressure of high interest rates and a sharp dip in consumer demand. Rising interest rates and sluggish stock market conditions have further dampened

Ram Prasad Sahu Trying times ahead for Tata Motors as it grapples with a large acquisition and a slew of new product launches in a tough macroeconomic environment. Slackening of demand, rising input costs and higher interest rates are not welcome news for the country's largest automobile player, Tata Motors. To maintain its margins, the company was forced to increase prices of its commercial and passenger vehicles over the last five months.

Swaraj Baggonkar Banks make criteria tougher for funding the car. Tata Motors Chairman Ratan Tata's dream to help the common man own a four-wheeler may meet its bete noire in bankers as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and rival lenders realign rules to finance the Nano, touted to be the world's cheapest car. To avoid being saddled with a large amount of bad loans, banks are keen to fund second-time car buyers as against two-wheeler owners, who intend to graduate to owning a car, bank officials, who declined to be identified, said.

The Tatas' small car is likely to roll out of the Singur plant as scheduled in October and vendors are also getting their projects readied, Tata Ryerson Managing Director Sandipan Chakravarty said. Mr. Chakravarty, whose company is slated to supply a substantial portion of the components for the Nano, said that he planned to get his plant ready by August. The issue of the rollout was at the fore again in view of the water-logging caused by the recent spell of heavy rains and flash floods in the State. Portions of the project area were submerged but the core area was not affected. Mr.

Setting aside the speculation, Tata Ryerson MD Sandipan Chakravortty assured on Friday that the Tata small car Nano will be rolled out in October from the Singur factory only. Tata Ryerson is one of the key component manufacturers of Rs 1 lakh car, Nano.

MUMBAI: Shweta Kumari is waiting impatiently for the new Nano by Tata Motors to hit car showrooms here later this year.

With a price tag of about $2,500, the Nano will cost about half the price of the least-expensive car on the market, easily affordable for Kumari, who works as a software developer.

Swaraj Baggonkar / Mumbai June 19 Ganesh Gaikwad (name changed on request) has been working at a Tata Motors outlet in the central suburbs of Mumbai for more than two years now. But none of the company's models during this period excited him as much as the Nano, which is targeted at the first-time car buyers.