Bookings for the Tata Nano re-opened on Independence Day and operations at Tata Motors’ Sanand plant in Gujarat are believed to be in full swing. Performance at that plant is truly praiseworthy with everybody working real hard to meet the growing demand. At its peak capacity, the Sanand plant can produce 20,000 Nanos a month. The peak capacity will probably be reached in March next year. But, will so many Nanos be required?

We had multiple cases of the Nano bursting out into flames till the matter was finally settled three months ago. After two Nano cars went up in flames in Mumbai and Vadodara earlier this year, Tata Motors had the car tested for safety after which the Nano was declared ‘absolutely safe’. However, Nano has proved that ‘absolutely safe’ isn’t really absolutely safe. Wonder why? Read on!

It was 11.30 am on a fine day, Friday, 27 August 2010, when a Tata Nano car burst out into flames in Delhi. The Nano that belonged to a Supreme Court advocate, Ravinder Narayan, was parked in a parking lot in Aurobindo Marg last Friday when it suddenly went up in flames. The whole drama was over in a matter of two minutes and only a charred frame of the Nano remained. Fortunately, no one was hurt. The driver saw the sparks and managed to get out immediately.

Patrick John was the driver and he noticed sparks coming from the rear of the car where the engine is located. “I was waiting in the car, having just parked it, when sparks started coming out. Thankfully, I managed to leap out of the car in time. I shudder to think what might have happened otherwise, since it was all over so fast. The entire car was destroyed in two minutes flat,” said John.

What about the safety tests? In May, Tata Motors had said the accidents were due to unrelated reasons and that the car was safe. The company is now looking into Friday’s incident and experts say that the Nano can’t be blamed yet. They say the fire was possibly not endemic to the Nano. “It is possible that the car had been tweaked to add some features like power windows or a fancy audio system where the wiring was not done properly,” said editor-in-chief of Zigwheels , Adil Jal Darukhanawala.

The Tata Nano in the recent incident was bought in May and had done 34,000km. It was serviced once. “On Friday, we were driving from Connaught Place to Hauz Khas, so had barely travelled 8-9 kilometres,” John said. The driver was travelling with the advocate’s manager before the accident occurred. The owner was unavailable for comment.

Earlier, the fire incidents were blamed on the combination switch towards the dashboard of the car, but were later blamed on engine faults which prompted the company investigation. A company statement issued on May 21 said: “Tata Motors has undertaken a comprehensive investigation related to the cause of fire in two Tata Nanos. On the basis of the findings of the investigation , conducted by a 20-member internal team and an independent forensic expert, Tata Motors assures all customers that the Tata Nano is a safe car, with a robust design and state of-the-art components.”

What is it this time? Now that bookings for the little wonder, the world’s cheapest car, have reopened, will the flames mar the Nano’s reputation and the sales? Well, let’s wait and see what Tata has to say.