Tata bears stamp of growth in Lanka

Nano to make significant impact:

Ravi Ladduwahetty

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Tata launches Nano

Tata Motors Ltd of India, in collaboration with its General Sales Agents Diesel and Motor Engineering PLC launched the Tata Nano and five commercial vehicles in the Sri Lankan market at the Sri Lanka Exhibition and Convention Centre on Saturday.

Tata has already sent 500 Nano cars for sale in Sri Lanka.

The event also coincided with the golden jubilee (50th) anniversary of Tata Motors international presence in Sri Lanka through its General Sales Agents Diesel and Motor Engineering PLC (DIMO), which also marked Sri Lanka as the first international export market for Tata.

To mark the golden jubilee, Tata Motors also launched five new commercial vehicles- the Tata Divo coach, a brand new luxury air conditioned coach, the Tata Marcopolo bus, a semi-low floor air conditioned bus, both for passenger transportation.

In the arena of cargo handling, saw the launch of the Tata Prima LPS 4928 which is one of the offerings of the Tata Prima range of prime movers and tippers, the Tata LPT 1618 truck and the Tata Super Ace and dubbed “Dimo Lokka”, which is an ultra stylish one-tonne truck. RL

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Tata Motors Ltd, the first Indian motoring giant to be listed on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, is intensive on its growth prospects in Sri Lanka in the post-war era.

“We have seen tremendous growth in the Sri Lankan market in the post- war phase and our sales are growing rapidly”, an upbeat Tata Motors Group CEO Carl Peter Forster told Daily News Business.

“We have acquired 70% of the commercial vehicles market and 42% of the overall market which augurs well for our product range.

We believe that there will be more opportunities for continued growth,” he said.

Forster said: “We believe that our product range suits the Sri Lankan market very well which is effectively supported by the good after sales service of our partner- Dimo, we trust that there are more opportunities for growth.

We already have 10,000 buses and over 70,000 vehicles in Sri Lanka.”

He said that the Tata Nano has been well received in Sri Lanka and 500 cars have already been imported here.

“It offers ample space and energy saving capability.

There is a substantial demand in India for the Tata Nano and it seems that it will be the same here,” he said. Sri Lanka is a market which we want to develop with a lot of focus for which a capable team has been assigned, he said.

DIMO Chairman/ CEO Ranjith Pandithage said: “This is indeed an important moment for us in our 72 year old history and we have the best engineering skills not only in automobile engineering but also in agricultural and power engineering sectors.

Nano will have a significant impact on the car market in Sri Lanka in the next ten years”, he said.