“Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and some of his colleagues have been supportive throughout. We greatly appreciate the CM’s involvement and encouragement,” he told the media in Delhi.

With work at the Singur plant gathering steam, he spoke positively about his upcoming investments in the state — a coke and power plant at Haldia and another new construction plant in Kharagpur by Telcon. The Tata Consultancy Services is also looking to expand its operations in Kolkata and build more hotels in the city.

Tata also said since his group was coming to Bengal with a lot of investment apart from the small car factory, he wanted to contribute to the development of the people of the state.

“We want to be a good corporate citizen. We want to train people and employ them in our factories. In the years ahead, we want to look back and feel that our faith in the Buddhadeb government was well-founded,” he added.

Having lived up to his promise of delivering the world’s cheapest car till date, Tata said it was the happiest day of his life.

“I was happy not just to make my dream come true but that a group of young Indian engineers could do something in India, especially when a lot of people said it cannot be done,” Tata said.

His company did not want to concentrate its presence in a few states, but was eager to expand to other states, where employment and ancillary industries could be created. To this end, the Tata Motors was also looking at setting up a plant in Punjab, he said.

Plans afoot
* A coke and power plant at Haldia
* New construction plant in Kharagpur by Telcon
*l Service expansion by TCS
* More hotels in the city