India’s data centre capability set to exceed 1 GW mark in 2024; Noida to emerge as key hub: Report

Mumbai is expected to remain India’s data centre capital and Noida will emerge as a key regional hub in terms of installed colocation capacity (IT load) in 2024 even as total capacity in the country crosses the 1 GW mark, according to Cushman and Wakefield report on data centres.

Mumbai is the largest local data centre market with over 50 percent pan-India share. Several greenfield facilities are expected to go live in 2024 in Noida in the Delhi NCR region and it is likely to surpass Bengaluru and reach levels close to Chennai, which is currently the second largest in the country in terms of installed IT load capacity, the report said.

Earlier this year, Mumbai was ranked third in the APAC region in Cushman and Wakefield’s 2023 Global Data Centre Market Comparison report.

According to the Data Centre Outlook report, total IT load capacity across the top seven cities is likely to reach 884 MW in 2023, a 35 percent year-on-year (YOY) growth from 656 MW at the end of 2022. The report stated that around 230 MW of incremental colocation capacity is likely to be added by the end of 2023.

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The report predicted that the year 2024 will see a continuation of the growth story with pan-India installed IT load breaching the 1 GW mark, having a 2.5 times jump since 2020.

Mumbai to remain data centre capital

“In 2024, the colocation capacity addition is estimated to be even higher than 2023 at 265 MW, thereby taking the total installed capacity (IT load) in the country to 1.15 GW by 2024 year-end. Mumbai and Chennai will continue to lead new capacity additions…Noida will emerge as a key regional hub,” the report said.

According to the report, at present Mumbai has a 52 percent share of the total IT load in the country followed by Chennai at 16 percent, Delhi NCR (11 percent), Bengaluru (9 percent), Pune (7 percent), Hyderabad (4 percent) and Kolkata at 1 percent. In 2024, Delhi NCR’s share is likely to rise to 14 percent in terms of total IT load while Kolkata’s share is likely to be around 3 percent.

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Vivek Dahiya, Managing Director, Head – Data Centre Advisory Team, Asia Pacific, Cushman and Wakefield, said that the data centre sector in India is evolving and maturing simultaneously and Mumbai remains India’s data centre capital with Hyderabad and Noida emerging as new hotspots for the upcoming cloud and colocation capacity.

Tier-II cities expansion

“We believe that Edge data centres will foray into tier-II cities as established firms look towards expanding their footprint deeper into India. Nationwide rollout of 5G services, global hyperscalers expanding their captive facilities and continued entry of new operators in India will ensure growth momentum is maintained for India. Favourable regulation and 5G expansion will act as tailwinds for the sector along with a continued focus on green data centres and energy savings,” Dahiya said.

Global hyperscalers are expanding their captive cloud facilities. Amazon’s new cloud region was inaugurated in 2022 with its greenfield captive cloud facility going live. MS Azure has announced major expansion plans and has moved ahead with land banking across Hyderabad and Pune, the report highlighted.

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In 2023, Digital Edge and Blackstone-backed Lumina Cloud infra commenced construction of their maiden data centres in Mumbai. Around $470 million was invested by Lumina CloudInfra, Digital Edge and Kotak Data Centre Fund in data centres this year, the report said.