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The steel town where 'you can check out any time you like but you can never leave'

Chris Jackson | 08:41 UK time, Monday, 19 October 2009

The classic lyrics to used to blare out of my radio while I was revising for my O-levels.

32 years later the Eagles song comes flooding back as I wander round a bizarrely unique town in a remote part of India and visit the local steelworks.

Steel works in JamshedpurJamshedpur was named after its founder - he started an industrial dynasty that has gone global and recently bought the steelworks on Teesside.

Whereas no-one in the North East has ever heard of him, in this town he is revered like a god.

That's why the Eagles' lyrics spring to mind. If you get a job at the steelworks here you also get accommodation, your kids' schooling and your healthcare is thrown in for free as well.

Compared to the poverty seen in many other parts of India this is a kind of Utopia. Once you check in with Tata you really will never leave.

Statue of Jamshetji TataHe is omnipresent. Statues and images of him greet you wherever you go. The parks are named after him, so are the schools, the hospitals, the sports stadium. Tata is everywhere.

The company makes virtually all the lorries you see crowding along the streets. There is no town council, for it is that provides the water, the electricity, the housing. Even individual paving stones bear the name. It is a private city where all roads lead to Tata - literally - because, yes, even the highways are maintained by Tata.

Initially it feels like I'm trapped in an episode of the 60's cult classic . To quote the Eagles song, I thought "this could be heaven or this could be hell".

After a few days it becomes clear even to a sceptical hack like me that this big brother is something of a benevolent dictator.

Steelworkers here had an and maternity leave long before British workers won that right. Free education and healthcare have been the norm since the turn of the last century. It's called social responsibility - which in plain English means if a company looks after its workers, they in turn will look after the company.

I'm here to see what under threat of losing their jobs can expect from their new Indian masters.
Jamshedpur Airport hangar with large Tata logo on the front

It proves to be quite a week after which I feel totally Tata'd. When you finally do try to leave the last thing you see is another massive Tata logo. You've guessed it, the company owns and runs the airport as well.

My visit was in August. The monsoon season failed to deliver the expected downpours but it was so humid it may as well have been chucking it down.

I depart having secured an interview with the man at the very top discussing what future he sees for Teesside and I also found out how the company dealt with massive cutbacks in Jamshedpur. You'll be amazed.

On tonight's show I'll tell you all.

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