Haldia port draught would have put Tata at odds if Singur site had come through

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Kolkata, Oct 7: Ratan Tata squarely blamed Mamata Banerjee for pulling out the Nano project from Bengal . But, even if the project had come through, Haldia port’s falling draught would have given the company a major headache.

Reports in August that Haldia port’s operations would stop from December because of falling draught, worried the auto major since it would have hit its export largely. Infact, its group company Tata Steel was already facing problems because of the falling draught at the port. “The cost of handling bulk cargo for Tata Steel went up many folds since November last year because of falling draught,” a Tata Motors official said on the condition of anonymity.

Tata Motors was looking at southeast Asia as a major market for its Rs 1-lakh Nano car and the company was betting on the Haldia port for exports.

Singur was strategically an advantageous location because it is only 45 km from Kolkata, the only metropolitan of the entire east and northeast India and directly connected to the road that is linked with the port. Haldia port was within a distance of 150 km from the Nano site, officials said.

According to Tata Motors officials, Mamata Banerjee-led Krishi Jami Jiban-O-Jibika Raksha Committee’s agitation worried the Tata Motors management, the Tatas would have waited for some more time if that had been the only reason.

Tata Motors was allured by the fact that Haldia, despite being a riverine port, was ranking second in terms of cargo handling for three years continously. Besides this, there was the advantage of inland waterways to transport the Nano car to other states at a very low cost.

“But finally it was found that the inland waterways was not a very effective mode of transport and also ships calling the Haldia port were entering with low-parcel load. Turn around time in the Haldia port was more compared with the other major ports of India ,” informed the official.

However, with the project to be relocated at Sanand in Gujarat , only 45 km from Ahmedabad, Tata Motors will use the Kandla port but its distance from the plant site would be nearly 450 km, officials said.

Tata Motors might also have to change its focus of export market and is likely to give priority to West Asian market, leaving southeast Asia as the second priority.