According to a report by Cushman & Wakefield, India’s data centre capacity is expected to reach around 230 MW by the end of 2024, with a similar or higher increase in 2025. The country has the potential to become a global data centre hub due to its low construction, land, and power costs, as well as its well-established IT and digitally enabled services ecosystem.
The majority of capacity creation is expected to occur in Mumbai, with other cities like Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, and Chennai also experiencing significant growth in 2025. The median cost of constructing a data centre in India is estimated at $ 6.8 million per MW of capacity, significantly lower than most APAC nations like Australia at $9.17 million and Japan at $12 million.
The report also highlighted three crucial undersea data cable projects in Mumbai that could be completed in 2025 and help in positioning India’s financial capital as a regional data centre hub. India’s power generation was at 442 GW as of 2023-24, up from 416 MW in the previous fiscal year. As of October 2024, it rose to 454 GW, with capacity addition expected this fiscal year in line with last year of 25 GW.
The report mentioned that beyond the current speed of delivery of colocation data centre projects, the potential for growth remains very high in India. Over the next five years, India will need anywhere between 1.7 GW and 3.6 GW of additional capacity, over and above the capacity that’s been built or planned currently.
The report mentioned that the increasing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) will further augment the overall demand for data centres in India. India is among the few nations aiming to double its power generation capacity to 820 GW by 2030, benefiting power-consuming industries like data centres. Meanwhile, a dominant 61 per cent of the 820 GW expected by 2030 is likely to come from renewable sources, emphasising India’s high focus on sustainability.
