A legacy in brick and mortar: Jamshedpur mourns a son

Jamshedpur: As Ratan Tata embarked on his last journey in Mumbai on Thursday, thousands of citizens and Tata Group employees gathered across the city, paying heartfelt tributes to the titan who affectionately called Jamshedpur his “second home”.
Speaking of homes, Ratan Tata, an engineer in Architecture and Structural Engineering from Cornell University in the US, had designed two houses in Jamshedpur, the city founded by the Tatas and where the global industrial giant began its remarkable journey. One was the home of former Tata Steel deputy managing director, Dr T Mukherjee, and the other the home of the owner of Hotel Mansarovar – both on Circuit House Road No 10 East in Jamshedpur. Tata had designed them in 1963-64, when he was in Jamshedpur for the first time as a trainee with the Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO), now Tata Motors.
“I am unbelievably lucky to have my house in Jamshedpur designed by Ratan Tata himself. It has a lot of space, with only kitchen and living room on the ground floor and bedrooms and other rooms on the first floor. It is beautifully designed,” Dr Mukherjee told HT on Thursday. ”A talented architect, Rata Tata had designed his own house in Alibag, near Mumbai, and his mother’s home in Mumbai. He also designed his own home on the Mumbai seafront, where he lived till the end. It has a lot of space, an open area, and a swimming pool that extends almost up to the Arabian Sea.”
Ratan Tata was also a passionate pilot and never missed a chance to soar through the skies, no matter where his travels took him. Niroop Mahanty, former Tata Steel vice-president, told HT on Thursday, “Ratan Tata knew that I too was a very keen pilot. Once, I was at Sonari airport to do a test on an aircraft when he landed at the airport on another flight. He was surprised to find me at the airport during working hours! When he realised I was doing a test, he smiled and wished me a happy landing.”
Sharing another precious memory, Mahanty recalled the time when Tata Steel had acquired a newer model of the type of aircraft used by the company. “Since Mr Tata was not familiar with this model, his landings were a little “heavy”. “I had the honour of pointing out the technical reason,” said Mahanty.
“In the Tata head office in Bombay, there is an insurance certificate for one of the company’s planes. It states, ‘To be flown by qualified professional pilots and the following: Mr Ratan Tata and Mr Niroop Mahanty.’ This is a matter of great pride for me. Rest in peace, Sir, in the skies you so loved,” said Mahanty, emotionally.
Ratan Tata became chairman of Tata Steel in 1993. Soon after, he set the ball rolling for the merger of many Tata Group companies to build the foundation of what is now the global Tata Brand. This was followed by high-profile overseas acquisitions of the Corus Steel, Tetley and Jaguar-Land Rover brands.
Tata employees in Jamshedpur and in plants elsewhere in the region still recall the words of this visionary. “It is imperative to make the Tata Group a unified group with one common multi-national brand in view of fast-paced globalisation and reforms, simultaneously,” Tata had said during his visit to the Noamundi iron ore mines in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand in 1994-95. It was this bold vision that shaped the global Tata Brand we know today, spanning industries from salt and steel to software.
It seems Jamshedpur kept calling Ratan Tata back. He visited the town 26 times during his lifetime. He last visited the city in March 2021, during the 182nd Founder’s Day celebration. Since it was held during the Covid-19 pandemic, Tata’s address was live-streamed for employees and a select group of Jamshedpur citizens. “I have been able to come this time, I don’t know when I will be able to come to Jamshedpur next,” Ratan Tata had said, then already in his 80s.
His words proved prophetic. On Thursday, people from all walks of life gathered at the Centre for Excellence, Steelanium Hall, Tata Workers Union and the Tata Motors Union, to pay their last tributes to the man who loved his business as much as he did his employees, humans, animals and the environment.