But Singur, the proposed birthplace and cradle of the new-born in Hoogly district of West Bengal, is yet to feel the ‘heat’ of the ‘sun rise’ in the East.
Blame it on nature, political opposition and the latest opposition from within -- the project work has periodically suffered bouts of suspension, throwing targets to go haywire. Questions are now being raised in various quarters including top honchos in the auto industry as to whether Tata Motors, in the wake of this unprecedented publicity blitzkreig on the Rs1 lakh car, could succeed in sticking to the schedule and roll out the first Nano either by the middle of this year or latest by 2008 end. There could be many a skid, some feel, between the unveiling and the actual rollout.

If an unprecedented monsoon deluge turned the entire 937-acre project area into a vast sheet of water and at several places, the water level stood at 6ft deep, prolonged agitation by the Trinamool Congress-backed Save Farmland Committee has taken a toll on the work schedule. Officials engaged at the site at Singur, are not too sure whether the plant would be up and running.

“There is so much to do.  We also need to maintain quality as it will be a world class plant,” an enginer on site says.

Waterlogging abnormally delayed the basic infrastructure work, necessitating vacuum dewatering of the weld shop; in fact, still a lot remains to be done at the press shop, paint shop and the engine shop. Work of preparing the floor of trim chassis fitment shop nearly at the centre of the plant is barely 10 per cent complete. Other priority jobs on the list include network of pipelines, water tank, an effluent treatment plant, the administrative buildings and the critical of all, 22 km of internal roads.

Despite all this, nothing can prevent waterlogging this monsoon as well, engineers apprehend and they are now looking up to the state government for undertaking a Rs 170 crore project for digging a canal to drain the rain water.

After the nature's frown came the latest one from the CITU, the trade union arm of the ruling CPI(M) in Bengal. Hours before Ratan Tata unveiled Nano at the Auto Expo in New Delhi, work came to a halt at Singur after some security guards belonging to the union resorted to a blockade of the plant as they had been fired from the services by the state-run West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation. The blockade that began as a mark of protest, snowballed into a major agitation after the authorities informed the guards, mostly local youths numbering about 700, that barely half of them would be retained.

“About 700 villagers who lost their agricultural jobs following acquisition of land, found some employment as the WBIDC gave them temporary job of guards. It will be extremely difficult for them to manage if they lose their source of income now,” a local CPM leader said. The CPM state secretary and Politburo member Biman Bose also sympathised with the retrenched guards and advised the state government to find some alternative jobs for them.

As the CITU blockade continued for couple of days, Opposition Trinamool and Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Medha Patkar seized the opportunity to lambast both the state government and Tatas for giving false promises to the locals about jobs, rehabilitation packages and alternative means of livelihood.

However,opposition or no opposition, the roll out of Nano has shaken the state government and vendors alike. Tata Motors too announced some plans to benefit the locals. A batch of 311 residents of Singur has been undergoing either six-month or nine-month training programmes since May 2007 at various Industrial Training Institutes of Bengal.

Successful candidates will then undergo further 15 months’ hands-on training at Tata Motors' facilities. On completion, the trainees are expected to take the trade tests to qualify for trade certificates issued by the National Council for Vocational Training and become eligible for employment.

To provide further boost to the local economy, the government has come out with various facilities for the vendors who are setting up shop at Singur. “Since Bengal has received no investment in the auto
industry for the last 60 years, the Singur factory is a do-or-die proposition for us and we’ll go all out to make it happen," claimed the state industries minister Nirupam Sen. Seven or eight months presently stand between the reality and dream of Sen as also that of Ratan Tata.