Brand new car may cost customers Tk 3 lakh
Kazi Azizul Islam
Nitol Motors, a local assembling company which sells automobiles manufactured by India’s Tata Motors, is now planning to make and market a Bangladeshi version of Nano, Tata’s much-hyped brand affordable to the lower middle class Indians.
The chairman of Nitol Motors, Abdul Matlub Ahmad, claims that the Nano cars can be made in his planned pant in Bangladesh and the customer-level price of each car will not exceed Tk 3 lakh.
If a deal is struck between Tata and Nitol, the small car manufacturing plant would be set up in Chittagong or Khulna in view of the proximity of the site to seaport, he told New Age on Monday.
The Nitol chairman is scheduled to have a ‘crucial’ meeting in this regard with the managing director of Tata Motors, PM Telang, in Dhaka on March 25.
However, the objective of Telang’s visit is to expand the company’s business in Bangladesh, especially enhancing capacity of Tata’s commercial vehicles assembling unit in Jessore and setting up a new plant in Kishoreganj for assembling Tata’s ACE series of mini trucks, said Matlub.
‘It is my dream to manufacture made-in Bangladesh cars and export them to different countries after meeting domestic demand,’ the Nitol chief said adding that he would be negotiating a deal with the Tata Motors to set up the plant. He mentioned that almost 60 per cent of Nano components would be made in the planned Bangladesh plant under the supervision of Tata Motors.
Bangladeshi customers showed interests in Nano showcased in the India Trade Fair in Dhaka in the past month. ‘But the price of each piece of imported Nano, including one hundred per cent duty, would stand at nearly Tk 6 lakh,’ Matlub pointed out.
He gave his estimate that a unit requires annual production of at least 50,000 cars for its business viability. ‘We see the prospect of selling 10,000 Nano cars a year while the rest can be exported,’ he added.
According to the businessman, northeast Indian states and West Bengal can the convenient export destinations and Nano cars can also be shipped to Europe or Africa.
Nano is a rear-engine four-passenger car which Tata launched in the Indian market in March 2009. It was a pledge by Tata group chairman Ratan N Tata to provide each of common Indians with a car at a price of Rs 100,000.
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