Nxtra Data Limited, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel started the construction of its new hyper-scale data centre in Kolkata. The company will invest Rs 6 billion in the development of the largest data centre in east India that will serve the underserved markets of east and north-east regions along with the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries and fulfill the growing needs of enterprises and global cloud players.
The groundbreaking ceremony was graced by Babul Supriyo, Minister of Information Technology, Electronics and Tourism, Government of West Bengal ; Debashis Sen, IAS (retired), managing director, West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (WBHIDCO); Rajeev Kumar, principal secretary, Information Technology and Electronics Department; and Rajesh Tapadia, executive director and chief operating officer, Nxtra by Airtel.
The 25 megawatt (MW) facility will come up in New Town, Kolkata and will be fully operational by 2024. In line with the company’s commitment to the environment and its ambition to reach net zero by 2031, the new centre will be a green facility, sourcing clean energy for running its operations. Once ready, it will be Nxtra’s large-scale facility in east India in addition to its already existing 12 large and 120 edge facilities across India. The new centre will further cement Nxtra’s position as the nation’s largest network of data centres.
Commenting on the development, Rajesh Tapadia, executive director and chief operating officer, Nxtra by Airtel, said, “Nxtra and Airtel are delighted to partner West Bengal in its digital-first economy agenda and would like to thank the state government for its unflinching support. The new facility will be one of the largest data centres in east India and will be the gateway to serving customers in and around the eastern region and the SAARC countries. We are investing extensively on green energy and our state-of-the-art, carrier-neutral, hyper-scale Kolkata data centre will run on renewable source of energy.”
Nxtra by Airtel is on an expansion spree and will invest over Rs 50,000 million over the next four years to expand its capacity by three times to over 400 MW. The company has already invested and partnered with eight organisations to source more than 180,000 MWh of renewable energy. Nxtra has the ambition to reach net zero by 2031.
