Automobile giant Ford is likely to set up its second car-making plant in Sanand, Gujarat, next to the plot where the Tata Nano is made.
It would be facile to say that hassle-free land allotment is the only reason for Ford’s choice. What is being witnessed at Sanand is something that has been seen before in many industrial belts across the world.
Very often all it takes is one manufacturer to set up shop at a location and a virtuous cycle starts. Maruti in Gurgaon and Hyundai in Chennai are good examples. A combination of cheap labour, low transport costs and availability of other inputs leads to geographic concentration of industries. From that aspect, it seems Sanand may have the makings of a Detroit. There’s nothing special about its location: Gurgaon in north could have made it too, but the inability of the Haryana government to sort out labour problems there has, possibly, robbed it of that chance.