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Kolkata Catches On To Pragati Maidan Frenzy

By pardeep3dec, Section News
Posted on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 04:39:50 AM EST

Raza Bakshi is a young IT executive in the city who did not waste any time in getting to the nearest Tata Motors dealership to find out when he can lay his hands on what is being seen as the greatest revelation in the global auto sector, the Tata Nano.

"I am going to buy the car with my own money. I think that it would be completely worth the buy. It looks like a nice car and the mileage promised is great," said Bakshi, who is a customer care executive at HSBC and in his early 20s.

Bakshi had recently met with a bike accident, after which his family does not allow him to ride a bike and so he is looking at the Nano as an appropriate alternative.

However, Bakshi says he would like to read what reviews the car gets when it hits the road.

With the Tata Nano, which was popularly called the onelakh small car thus far, being unveiled today at the Auto Expo in New Delhi, it did not take too long for Kolkata to catch on to the euphoria surrounding the cheapest car in the world till now.

Even as Tata Motors chair man Ratan Tata, drove in with the Nano in front of a packed gathering 1,200 km away from Kolkata in Pragati Maidan in the Capital, the phones started buzzing at the Tata Motors dealerships in the city and have not stopped till now.

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"The response has been fantastic. We have received over a 100 queries regarding the small car and are receiving many more by the hour," said the deputy general manager at K B Motors, Rissac Baptist. However, officials at the dealerships claimed that they did not have much more information to pass on to the customers as they were wait ing for further instructions from the Tata Motors headquarters in Mumbai.

The most popular query throughout the day was when would bookings start for the Nano. While Baptist claimed that booking would start in the next seven to eight months, another official at Lexus Motors claimed that they have been directed to tell enquirers that booking would start only during the Durga Puja in October 2008.

Even at the AJC Bose Road-located Lexus Motors showroom, which was vandalised during the controversy surrounding land acquisition at Singur for the Tata Motors factory from where the Nano is expected to be produced, around ten people had poured in a span of minutes to find out greater details about the small car.

Samaresh Ghosh, a 63year-old retired bank employee, is also eagerly waiting for the Nano to hit the street. "This is what every Kolkatan has been waiting for. The most talked-about car in the world is going to be produced in our very own state, and it is ideally suited for a small family like mine looking to travel on the congested roads of Kolkata," said Ghosh.

By: TIE, Jan-11-08

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