Asahi India Glass (AIS) and Vishakha Group have announced a joint venture into solar glass with an in-principle agreement to set up India's largest and state-of-the-art green field solar glass plant at Mundra, Gujarat.

With phase-1 glass manufacturing capacity of up to 3GW of the installable capacity the factory is expected to be commissioned within 18-24 months. AIS will take a minority stake in the solar glass business.

Vishakha Group is one of the largest manufacturers of flexible polymer packaging. It has manufacturing facilities for key components in the entire solar panel value chain: solar backsheets, EVA encapsulant sheets and solar module aluminium frames.

Sanjay Labroo, Managing Director & C.E.O, of Asahi India Glass Ltd (AIS), said: "Although a different market segment, solar glass is still an adjacent business to the existing businesses of AIS. We are delighted to partner with Vishakha group in their vision of creating the entire ecosystem and value chain for indigenizing solar energy generation in India."

Jigish Doshi, Chairman Vishakha Group, said: "India has been one of the few nations that has accelerated its global commitment towards climate change and we intend to do our part to achieve the renewable energy target. The joint venture into solar glass manufacturing will support the "Atmanirbhar Bharat" initiative of Government of India, contribute in achieving energy independence and lead to massive job creation in the Gujarat region. We are delighted to partner with AIS in this new journey. We plan to compliment the technical expertise & experience of AIS with synergies from our other businesses in the entire solar value chain".

www.aisglass.com