NEW DELHI: Tata Motors halted work yesterday at a factory manufacturing the world’s cheapest car in eastern India as thousands of angry farmers protested outside for compensation for their land, a company official said. The move cast further doubt on the production of the $2,500 Nano, set to go on sale by the end of 2008. Tata announced the Nano earlier this year as a vehicle that would empower India’s poor.
The company acquired 997 acres (403 hectares) in West Bengal state to build its plant on, but the project has drawn significant opposition from local farmers who say they haven’t received proper compensation for their land and opposition politicians who accuse the company of taking advantage of the rural poor.The protests, which began in Dec. 2006, have intensified recently. Opposition politicians have for nearly a week been organizing a blockade of the highway that runs past the factory, setting up tents and stages and holding daily rallies. Protesters won an apparent victory yesterday when, for the first time, Tata officials told its roughly 5,500 employees and contractors not to come to work.