Ratan Tata said goodbye to the world at the age of 86. He breathed his last at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. There was mourning across the country over his death. Apart from being a veteran industrialist, Ratan Tata is also known as a person who always thought about the middle class of the country. Whether it is giving him a job or other facilities. He also dreamed of giving the middle class the world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano. This was also achieved. It’s another matter that he couldn’t achieve it. The history of Nano’s thought and creation is also very interesting.
In fact, while many car companies think of making a lot of money from their cars, Ratan Tata thought of Nano by considering the helplessness of the middle class and giving a car to a small family. Ratan Tata had said in one of his interviews that he saw a family traveling on a scooter. His condition on the scooter with his wife and 2 children resembled that of Sadviz. Sitting on a scooter like this becomes quite a difficult task. Especially as children get older, the journey becomes even more difficult. It was from there that he came up with the idea that even the middle class should absolutely have a car.
Seeing the condition of the family riding scooters, he thought how great it would have been if these people had a car, even if it was small. They got into the car sitting comfortably on the seats. They don’t even care about dust and rain. Seeing people riding scooters like this, he thought of making a small car. From that moment on, he began to realize his dream of an inexpensive car. After which he decided to make the Nano, the cheapest car in the country.
About his car, he had written on social media that while doodling in his free time, he thought about what it would be like if motorcycles became safer. Thinking of this, he drew a car that looked like a horse-drawn carriage. There were even doors. After that, he thought he should make a car for these people. After which Nano came into existence. This dream car of Ratan Tata is also known as Lakhtakiya.
This is how the cheapest Tata Nano car in the country was prepared
Ratan Tata had entrusted the responsibility of designing the Nano to Girish Wagh. Another dream project of Girish Tata has been successfully completed. This team had created a small truck named Tata ‘S’. This little truck became quite famous as Chhota Hathi. Wagh and his team worked on Nano for about 5 years. Ratan Tata held a meeting with Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, then West Bengal Chief Minister and CPI(M) leader, and Commerce Minister Nirupam Sen on May 18, 2006. After this, he announced that the Tata plant Nano would be established in Singur, Hooghly district of West Bengal. Approximately 1,000 acres of land were required for this project.
After getting the land, production of Tata Nano started at the Singur factory, but considering political opposition and employee safety, Ratan Tata announced at a press conference in Kolkata on 3 October 2008 that it would move the Nano car project from Singur goes elsewhere. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was then the chief minister of Gujarat. He proposed to implement this ambitious Tata project in Sanand. After which, the Tata Nano factory arrived in Sanand from Singur with 3,340 trucks and around 500 containers. This work lasted seven months.
Tata has set up its factory in Sanand. Production of Tata Nano has started there. Ratan Tata introduced the Tata Nano to the public on 10 January 2008 at the Delhi Auto Expo held at Pragati Maidan, Delhi. The price of the base model of Tata Nano has been set at Rs 1 lakh. This car became a success from the moment it was launched. It received so many reservations that due to demand, the company decided to offer the first million cars through a lottery system. More than two million people applied for it. Ratan Tata handed over the keys of the first Nano car to Customs Department employee Ashok Raghunath Vichare on July 17, 2009.