Ascendas India Trust will invest INR 12 billion (S$216.6 million) into a new data center campus in the up-and-coming data center hub in Airoli, located in Navi Mumbai, India.
A 6.6-acre site has been selected for the build, and will be developed in phases to become a 575,000 square-foot data center campus. The campus will supply 90 megawatts (MW) of power to cloud service providers, technology companies, and domestic enterprise clients.
The data center campus will also host approximately 8,500 racks and operate at an efficient power usage effectiveness (PUE) of approximately 1.4.
Ascendas India Trust's Sanjeev Dasgupta says the company's entry into the India data center market will diversify a-iTrust's portfolio in the second-fastest-growing digital economy in the world.
According to research by JLL, data center demand in India is expanding rapidly and expected to grow 31% to 1,007 MW by 2023. The rise in demand is due to a number of factors, including improved technology infrastructure, artificial intelligence, 5G, cloud, and the internet of things.
Says Dasgupta, “The large market size combined with the increasing trends towards data localisation validates our market entry strategy.
“Developing our first data center campus with support from our sponsor, CapitaLand, will allow us to leverage the CapitaLand Group's data center expertise and gives us complete control over the design and quality of the data center. We look to improve our portfolio resilience through diversification into new economy asset classes such as data centers and life sciences.
CapitaLand Group CEO data center and chief corporate strategy officer, He Jihong, says that CapitaLand sees a good opportunity in India's data center market.
"We are acquiring the site for development of our first data center in India following the recent acquisition of our first hyperscale data center in China, one of the largest data center markets in the world. We are stepping up our growth in data centers and accelerating expansion of the Group's portfolio into new economy asset classes.
He Jihong continues, “With this new development in India, the Group's investment in data centers this year has amounted to about S$1.7 billion. We will continue to build and leverage our expertise in data center design, development and operations across the regions. We look forward to working with our capital and business partners to expand our data center portfolio in our core markets.
The first building in the data center campus will span 325,000 square feet. It is expected to be complete by Q2, 2024.
“As we grow further, we will continue to be prudent in our capital management and nimble in seizing investment opportunities, to maximise unitholders' returns,” concludes Dasgupta.