West Bengal’s loss could well be – Maharashtra, Orissa or even Karnataka’s gain. A day after Ratan Tata – the father of the Rs 1 lakh car,Nano – threatened to move the project lock, stock and barrel out of Singur, other state government’s are rolling out the red carpet for the Rs 1,500 crore project.

“I could read from Ratan Tata’s statement that he is troubled in West Bengal so I invited him to come here instead and we will give him a red carpet welcome. There are a lot of probable sites for the Nana project in Maharashtra. We have a mega-project policy in Maharashtra and whatever concessions there are in that policy will be given to the TATAs if they decided to come here,” Mahrashtra Chief Minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh said.

“We will offer a market price to the farmers and give proper compensation for their land. All problems related to land acquisition for industry have become synonymous with the state of West Bengal,” he added. Meanwhile, Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik too is echoing the invitation. “Orissa is willing to consider the Nano project if TATA approaches us,” he said. Orissa’s Industry Minister, Biswa Bhusan Harichandan has criticised the Left-ruled West Bengal government for being desperate to retain the Nano project in the state, but at the same time, the same Left parties are protesting various other mega projects in Orissa.