Locals told to vacate quarters

AHMEDABAD: Sanand is abuzz with talks of the Tatas moving there.

Officials from Tata Motors and the Gujarat government have reportedly been making daily trips to Anand Agriculture University’s Northcote Cattle Farm at Charodi, near Sanand—the proposed site of the Nano project.

Employees and staff members of the cattle farm and university say they have been asked to vacate their staff quarters as soon as possible. “Two days ago, some Tata officials came here and counted the number of houses in the staff quarters. To our queries, the official said we would have to empty this place as they would construct the factory here. They also said they would have the mahurat on Dusshera,” said Hirabhai Jivabhai Thakor, who has been residing here for the past 60 years.
 
Located 35 km from Ahmedabad, the 2,200 acres of land is owned by the state government. Land prices are in the range of Rs7 lakh a bigha (1 acre = 2.5 bigha).
 
“State government officials would be right authorities to comment on the Tata project since this land belongs to the government,” said MC Varshney, V-C of Anand Agriculture University.