Invests INR 12 billion to develop phase one of the campus.

Ascendas Property Fund Trustee plans to invest an estimated INR 12 billion (S$216.6 million) to develop and operate phase one of its first data centre campus on a prime site in India. It will be one of the largest data centre campuses in Airoli, a growing data centre hub in Navi Mumbai.

The 6.6-acre greenfield site will be developed in phases into a fully-fitted data centre campus with a total potential built-up area of up to 575,000 square feet (sqft) and 90 megawatts (MW) of power to host customers such as global technology giants and cloud service providers, as well as large domestic enterprise clients. The acquisition of the site from third-party vendors is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2021.

Demand for data centres in India is rising due to improving technology infrastructure and increasing adoption of new technologies like 5G, artificial intelligence, cloud and the Internet of Things. These factors are expected to result in an expansion of India’s total data centre capacity at a compound annual growth rate of 31 per cent to 1,007 MW by 2023 , said He Jihong CEO data centre, and CCSO, CapitaLand Group.

“India’s rising data consumption and demand for quality solutions present a good opportunity for CapitaLand’s entry into the country’s burgeoning data centre market. We are acquiring the site for development of our first data centre in India following the recent acquisition of our first hyperscale data centre in China, one of the largest data centre markets in the world,” she said.

The data centre campus site which a-iTrust is acquiring is situated in a prime location along Thane-Belapur Road, easily accessible from Mumbai city via the Eastern Express Highway. Navi Mumbai has emerged as a preferred data centre location since it offers proximity to sea cable landing stations, larger land parcels with clear title, abundant and scalable power, developed infrastructure and seamless vendor neutral network connectivity.

When it is fully developed, the data centre campus will have an overall capacity to host approximately 8,500 racks and operate at efficient power usage effectiveness 4 of approximately 1.4. In line with CapitaLand’s 2030 Sustainability Master Plan, the data centre will adopt sustainable design principles and green building standards. These include features such as intelligent energy management systems, solar panels, and waterless cooling systems.

Tags: Ascendasdata centre