Business house hopes to bring Tata Nano to Pakistani roads

ISLAMABAD, May 5 (PTI): The Tata Nano, the world's cheapest car, could be cruising on Pakistani roads if the governments of India and Pakistan remove bottlenecks standing in the way of joint ventures and investments between the two countries. The International Multi Group of Companies, a Pakistani business house with interests in areas as diverse as edible oil and film imports, has expressed an interest in importing vehicles from India's mammoth Tata Group, including the Nano and CNG buses. "We already have a letter of intent with the Tata Group as we were interested in their CNG buses. At a later stage, if restrictions in the trade policies of both India and Pakistan are removed, we are interested in bringing the Nano to Pakistan," IMGC Global Chairman Amjad Rashid told PTI Wednesday. IMGC's plans to import CNG buses from Tata have been held up due to restrictions in Pakistan's trade policy, which allows the import of only a limited number of vehicles and makes it mandatory for a majority of vehicles to be assembled within the country. At the same time, the Reserve Bank of India's policies do not allow joint ventures and investments in Pakistan. "We raised these issues with Indian Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar when he was in Islamabad last month for talks with the Pakistani Commerce Secretary and he promised to get these restrictions removed," Rashid said.