India to have 45 massive data centres by 2025-end, Mumbai to lead

Mumbai, Aug 30

Buoyed by the growing demand, over 45 data centres spanning 13 million square feet and 1,015 MW of IT capacity are planned to come up in India by 2025, a report showed on Tuesday.

Altogether, there will be 183 data centres in the country with 24 million square feet and 1,752 MW of total IT capacity by 2025-end, according to ANAROCK-Binswanger report.

In terms of IT capacity (nearly 1,015 MW), over 69 per cent of this planned new supply will come up in Mumbai and Chennai, with 51 per cent in Mumbai alone.

Currently, there are 138 data centres across India spanning 11 million square feet and having 737 MW of IT capacity (building ready).

At least 57 per cent of this current IT capacity is in Mumbai and Chennai, collectively.

"The current size of the India data centre industry is about $5.6 billion and is bound to grow. The country's total estimated data centre demand is expected to be 2,100 MW as of FY 2025, with a mix between hyperscalers and enterprises," said Devi Shankar, President, Industrial and Logistics and Data Centres, ANAROCK Capital.

Meanwhile, said the report, there is additional potential of nearly 2,688 MW of future unplanned supply in India.

"Land for this supply has been locked in by DC operators, but the projects will likely be planned based on actual demand and/or outcome of earlier planned phases," the report mentioned.

Around 78 per cent of this unplanned IT capacity is to be concentrated in Mumbai and Hyderabad.

"Data centres are currently a fulcrum for a lot of the decision-making, especially in Asia Pacific and in India," said Jeff Binwanger, Managing Partner, Binswanger.

While 30 per cent of companies are looking at hybrid (Cloud+data centre) hosting services for data management, 72 per cent of professionals have witnessed data surges in their organisations post Covid-19.