Reliance set to invest nearly ₹2 lakh crore to set up India’s largest data centre cluster in Andhra: Report

Reliance Industries is reportedly set to invest ₹1.6 lakh crore, or more than $17 billion, to build a 1.5-gigawatt data centre cluster and a captive solar battery storage system in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The project is expected to become India’s largest data centre cluster, surpassing Google’s 1-GW project in the same region, which involves an investment of $15 billion.

According to a report in The Economic Times, the Andhra Pradesh Investment Promotion Committee approved the investment at a meeting held last Saturday. Reliance plans to develop a giga-scale artificial intelligence data centre cluster in three phases near Visakhapatnam’s new airport at Bhogapuram, it said.

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Reliance has sought 935 acres for the data centre cluster, including 300 acres for the first phase and 635 acres for the second phase, and also requested 1 acre for a cable landing station and 80 acres for a desalination plant, the report added.

In the first phase, the company will set up a 500 MW data centre at Polipalli village, with commercial production expected to begin by October 2028. In the second phase, an additional 1 GW of capacity will be developed at Bhogapuram East and West by 2030. The entire cluster will be located in the Bhogapuram area.

Visakhapatnam is attracting a series of data centre investments including Google, Sify along with Digital Connexion, and Anant Raj Cloud. 

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Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh said last year that the state was targeting a hosting capacity of 6 GW. Under its Data Centre Policy 4.0, the state offers incentives including 100 per cent reimbursement of state GST on capital goods, a 10 per cent capital subsidy on machinery, and deemed distribution licences for direct energy procurement for projects with capacity of at least 300 MW.

Reliance has proposed to invest about ₹1.08 lakh crore in the data centre cluster and ₹51,300 crore in the linked renewable energy project. The State Investment Promotion Committee has also cleared a solar project with a total direct current panel capacity of 9,000 MW-peak, which can generate a maximum of 6,600 MW of alternating current.