Swedish home furnishing giant IKEA may build a furniture plant in the Nizhny Novgorod region near the Volga for 1.5 billion rubles ($50 million), regional deputy governor Dmitry Svatkovsky said on Wednesday.

"Construction of the furniture-making plant by IKEA in ... the Nizhny Novgorod region is one of the interesting projects expected in 2012," Svatkovsky told reporters, adding that the plant would also process timber for furniture components.

The regional government undertakes to build all necessary infrastructure, including transport, for the plant.

Last year IKEA decided to build a chair-making plant in the Kirov region near Volga for more than 1 billion rubles ($33.4 million).

IKEA's overall investment in Russia, where it has 28 outlets, amounts to nearly 100 billion rubles.