Ascendas India Trust to invest $161m for phase one of first India data centre campus

Singapore-listed Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust), the first Indian property trust in Asia, is developing and operating phase one of its first data centre campus in India with an estimated 12 billion rupees ($161 million) investment.

In a statement, Ascendas Property Fund Trustee Pte Ltd, the trustee-manager of a-iTrust, said phase one of the data centre campus project involves the construction of a building that will have a built-up area of about 325,000 square feet.

The data centre campus will comprise two buildings, with the first building expected to be ready by the second quarter of 2024.

The campus will sit on a 6.6-acre greenfield site that 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 and 90 megawatts of power.

The data centre campus is expected to host a variety of customers, including global technology giants and cloud service providers, as well as large domestic enterprise clients.

“Our entry into the data centre sector in India will diversify a-iTrust’s portfolio into an attractive and highly scalable asset class. India has the fastest-growing digital economy in the world,” said Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO of the trustee-manager of Ascendas India Trust.

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% to 1,007 MW by 2023, according to the announcement.

The data centre campus site that 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 an efficient power usage effectiveness of approximately 1.4,” according to the announcement.

a-iTrust’s portfolio comprises seven world-class IT business parks and one logistics park in India, namely the International Tech Park Bangalore; International Tech Park Chennai and CyberVale in Chennai; International Tech Park Hyderabad, CyberPearl, and aVance in Hyderabad; and aVance in Pune and Arshiya warehouses near Mumbai.