Singur: Tata Motors will roll out 2.50 lakh units from the small car project in 2008 and the production is likely to touch 3.50 lakh in the next few years, West Bengal Minister for Commerce and Industry Nirupam Sen said. "I hope that next year, the first year of its production, 2.50 lakh small cars will roll out of the Tata Motors project here and the figure will reach 3.50 lakh in the coming years," Sen told a CPI-M rally here.

Sen said the day was not far when Singur would turn into a thriving township like Uttarpara, Bandel or Serampore in Hooghly district. He said many industrial units would come up on both sides of the Durgapur Expressway, beside the Singur project site, in the coming years.

Claiming that there was an overwhelming response from farmers to hand over their land for industry all over the state, Sen said the state government has asked Tatas to involve the local people in area development programmes and the business group is training 3,000 people.

The minister claimed that 70 percent of Singur farmers gave their land voluntarily for the Tata project, while some land could not be acquired due to litigation and the remaining refused to hand over land "due to confusion".

Criticising the opposition parties for resisting the Tata Motors project on the ground that it was set up on multi-crop land, Sen expressed surprise that "these parties did not object to industries on fertile land beside the Durgapur Expressway years ago".