"Nokia has been telling us that they have identified a very serious buyer, but due to their non-disclosure agreement they are not willing to give out their name," Tamil Nadu Additional Chief Secretary C V Shankar told reporters here.
Nokia plant, near Chennai, had started operations in 2006, but was shut down in November last year.
Nokia, which sold its global devices and services business to Microsoft in April last year, left the manufacturing plant out of the deal due to ongoing tax issues faced by the Finnish firm in India.
On the tax cases being faced by Nokia, he said it is an individual company's case with the Income Tax department of government of India.
"Obviously the state government can not say yes or no to any of them at the particular issue in hand. Nokia has now come up with a proposal for defreezing the assets and selling it to some one outside the company and the money to be parked in an escrow account etc.
Shankar said it would be in everyone's interest if the factory is started.
"To that extent going into the issue, merit of the case or otherwise, we would prefer that unit is open. GOI should take a call on this very quickly," he said.
When asked if the Tamil Nadu government has not been supportive of the firm, Shankar said that government has always supportive of Nokia.
"That has not been our attitude basically because of the employment otherwise what is the interest of a state government in a company like this," he added.