A solar panel factory will be built in Bahrain at a cost of BD75.6 million ($200 million), our sister newspaper the Gulf Daily News has learnt.

The new plant is expected to be ready by the end of next year and will create around 200 jobs.

It is being spearheaded by the Nasser S Al Hajri Corporation and managing director Dr Ravi Pillai revealed the solar panels would be exported to Europe for domestic and industrial use.

'We have invested in this venture because of our belief that the future is in alternative sources of energy,' he said.

'Solar power and other alternative means are rapidly gaining ground all over the world and five years from now, we will see it being widely used.'

He also hoped there would be a market for the solar panels in Bahrain.

'We are looking at a long-term plan to market these panels in Bahrain and the other GCC countries,' said Dr Pillai. The initial focus will be on Western markets and the factory is being built in co-operation with a Dutch company, which Dr Pillai declined to name.

'We have to first look at the European market,' he said.

'The agreement with the European company is on a 'buy back' basis.'

That means the Dutch company has committed to buy solar panels from the Bahrain plant for the next five years.

'We hope the facility will be up and running by the end of the year,' added Dr Pillai.

'We have already applied to the Commerce and Industry Ministry for a licence and have been told it should be available within a month.' Meanwhile, he revealed the company was also planning a multi-million dollar, low-cost housing project in Bahrain.

'We are talking to some investors and are in the final stages of discussions,' he said.

'The modalities are being worked out and we shall make an announcement relatively soon.

'We are looking at starting the project later this year.' Dr Pillai is the founder of the Nasser S Al Hajri Corporation, an industrial construction contractor serving the Middle East.

The company employs more than 50,000 people in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain, 80 per cent of whom are Indian.

It already deals in oil and gas, refineries, petrochemicals, fertilisers, cement, power, desalination and steel.

However, Dr Pillai - the chairman of Bahrain's New Millennium School who last month received the coveted Padma Shri award from the Indian government - revealed thousands more Indians would be employed in the next few months as his business expands across the GCC.-TradeArabia News Service