Tata Motors wins ₹766 crore compensation in West Bengal Nano plant case

Tata Motors on Monday said an arbitral tribunal has asked the West Bengal Industrial Development Corp to pay the company Rs 766 crore compensation in connection with losses incurred on its manufacturing site in Singur.

Tata Motors had to shift its plant to produce small car Nano from Singur in West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat in October 2008 due to a land row. Tatas, by then, had already put over Rs 1,000 crore in Singur.

In a regulatory filing, the auto major said a three-member Arbitral Tribunal has ruled that the company is entitled to recover from the respondent West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation Ltd (WBIDC) a sum of Rs 765.78 crore with interest thereon 11 per cent per annum from September 1, 2016, till actual recovery thereof.

The compensation is in respect to the auto major's claim of compensation from WBIDC under various heads, including the loss of capital investments with regard to the automobile manufacturing facility at Singur.

"This is to inform that the aforesaid pending Arbitral proceedings before a three-member Arbitral Tribunal has now been finally disposed of by a unanimous award dated October 30, 2023, in favour of Tata Motors," the Mumbai-based auto major said.

Tata Motors has also been held to be entitled to recover from the respondent (WBIDC) a sum of Rs 1 crore towards the cost of the proceedings, it added.

"With the making of the final arbitral award as mentioned above, the Arbitral proceedings have come to an end," it added.

In June 2010, Tata Motors inaugurated a new plant in Sanand to produce Nano, which it has ceased to sell now.

The inauguration took place nearly two years after it was forced to shift the plant out of West Bengal due to the land row.

The Sanand plant was inaugurated by the then-Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata.

Ratan Tata's dream of making a car costing only Rs 1 lakh had to face many challenges -- both technical and political -- ever since it was conceived in 2003.

Amid opposition from the Trinamool Congress against the plant, Tatas shifted the manufacturing base of Nano from Singur to Sanand in October 2008.

Tata Motors finally discontinued the sales of Nano in 2020.