Manufacturing giant Foxconn is considering buying Nokia's defunct assembly plant in Chennai as part of a $2 billion investment in the market.
Foxconn India is seeking to expand its operations and move assembly of handsets from Indian vendor Micromax closer to the source, the Economic Times reported.
Another Indian handset vendor, Lava, has also reportedly been looking into acquiring the facility.
Nokia had to leave its Chennai plant out of the deal for the sale of its handset business to Microsoft due to the facility being embroiled in a tax dispute. The facility wound up production last month.
Unnamed government officials interviewed for the report said the proceeds from the sale could be put into an escrow account, that would then be allocated to the winner of the tax dispute.
Other unnamed sources said that Micromax would be interested in sourcing as much as 25% of its production from Foxconn if it takes over the plant, and that the facility would potentially be able to rehire people who were laid off due to its closure.