From correspondents in Karnataka, India, 01:01 PM IST

A Tata Motors team visited Dharwad district Sunday to inspect the land offered by the Karnataka government for relocating the Nano small car project from Singur in West Bengal.

Tata Motors managing director G. Ravi Kant and senior officials of the company met Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa ahead of the site visit to discuss the slew of promises by the state government for setting up the Nano plant.

Tata Motors wants 1,000 acres of land for Nano as it is an integrated project. Karnataka has agreed to provide the land and other facilities.

The Tata group already has around 900 acres of land in Dharwad, 420 km north west of Bangalore, where it has been manufacturing earth-moving equipment since 1999 and is setting up a plant for luxury buses.

Tata Motors wants 1,000 acres more for the Nano.

Industries Minister Murugesh Nirani, who was also in Dharwad Sunday to meet the Tata Motors team, has said the government has 500 acres with it and finding another 500 acres in the area was not a problem.

Tata group chairman Ratan Tata announced Friday in Kolkata that the Nano plant in Singur was being shut in view of the continuing agitation against it over land acquisition.

Soon thereafter, Yeddyurappa telephoned Tata and invited him to Bangalore to take forward the state's offer of land and other facilities for relocating the plant in Dharwad.

Ravi Kant had met Yeddyurappa in Bangalore last month when the offer was reiterated.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)