Amidst an unseemly controversy rattling the Andhra Pradesh government and warranting high-level probes in India and Germany, Volkswagen has shown its inclination to set up the car project at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh and not elsewhere in the country.‘‘When Volkswagen is talking about the India project, it is talking about Andhra Pradesh project. We are interested to come here,’’ said VW India representative Frank Elbe at a news conference here today. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, with whom Elbe had a 45-minute meeting earlier, was also present at the media briefing.Expressing his happiness, Reddy told the joint news conference that VW confirmed that it would go ahead with the Visakhapatnam project.‘‘Elbe’s visit will serve as a confidence building exercise. He assured that the shady dealings of Schuster would be put behind and the relationship between AP government and Volkswagen should continue. Elbe also wanted the AP government to continue its pro-active support, the Chief Minister said.The proposed project ran into a major controversy following revelation that the Rs 11 crore deposited by the AP government towards equity was, in fact, gobbled by a dubious company, Vashista Wahan, which clainmed to be the Indian arm of VW. Schuster, who was India operations head for VW when the payment was made, has since been fired by the auto major and is facing a probe. Simultaneously, the AP government too instituted a CBI inquiry to unravel where the money went.Elbe, former ambassador to India, sought to impress that Volkswagen was serious about the project while putting behind the Schuster scandal.Elbe, who held discussions with senior officials of the Industries department soon after his arrival here on Sunday, said: ‘‘We assume the responsibility of illegal dealings of Schuster and have already offered to compensate the AP government. We also became victims of certain confusion,’’ he said.He said Volkswagen was looking forward to meet the official delegation from Andhra Pradesh and the dates would be finalised soon. He said VW has still not decided on floating a special purpose vehicle for the car project in Andhra Pradesh. ‘‘This has to be negotiated,’’ he added.Sources said Elbe informed the CM how the company suffered due to the shady dealings of Schuster and what steps VW and the German government had taken to stem the rot. Equipped with all the correspondence that took place between the state government and Schuster, Elbe tried to figure out where things went wrong.On his part, the Reddy explained how the state government was taken for a ride by Schuster and Co wile reiterating its commitment to extend all possible support to the company. Elbe is leaving for Delhi on Tuesday where he would be meeting some senior officials in the PMO and FM P. Chidambaram.
