NEW DELHI (Kyodo) -- Indian automaker Tata Motors said Friday it will abandon plans to build its $2,500 "Nano," the world's cheapest car, in West Bengal and relocate elsewhere to end months of threats against the plant and its workers outside Kolkata.
Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata announced the pullout of the Nano plant from Singur, about 40 kilometers north of Kolkata, saying, "We cannot work at Singur under police protection. Our employees need safety."
Local farmers had refused to sell land needed to expand the production facilities for the Nano and, led by a regional political group, agitators had threatened Tata autoworkers.
Many other Indian states, however, including Gujarat in the west and Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh in the south, are offering to become the new home of the Nano.
Tata Group is said to have invested about $150 million in West Bengal.
Tata himself said, however, the end of the West Bengal plans will not stop the launch of the Nano on the Indian market set for the end of this month.