BAM Digital Realty’s second state-of-the-art data centre to come up in Mumbai

BAM Digital Realty, a joint venture between Brookfield Infrastructure and Digital Realty, is building its second state-of-the-art data centre in Chandivali, Mumbai. For this, the company has acquired 2.15 acres, and with a total expected investment of more than Rs 2,000 crore (around $250 million), the facility will deliver 35 megawatts (Mw) of IT load upon completion. This new data centre will bring the company’s total planned capacity in India to 135 Mw.

This strategic investment in Mumbai builds upon BAM Digital Realty’s initial foray into the Indian market. The company’s first 20-Mw greenfield data centre (MAA10), on a 100 Mw campus in Chennai, will be launched by the end of 2023.

The new site in Mumbai was short-listed due to its proximity to customers and central location in the city, essential characteristics of a well-connected facility capable of supporting the growing demand for critical digital infrastructure in this region.

Arpit Agrawal, Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure, India & Middle East, Brookfield Infrastructure Group, says, “Mumbai continues to be a prominent data centre hub reinforced by the ongoing rapid expansion of the Indian data centre industry that is fuelling the country’s significant digital transformation.”

Serene Nah, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, Digital Realty, adds, “The choice of the strategic location in Chandivali gives local and global customers convenient access to a well-connected facility in the heart of Mumbai. This adds a significant new metro to Digital Realty’s safe and open global data meeting place, enabling customers to expand and grow their businesses in key markets around the world.”

Mumbai is India’s primary connectivity hub and leading international internet gateway, hosting the highest number of subsea cables landing in India. It also offers robust power infrastructure and dense fibre connectivity, critical for the high-power compute workloads that support new technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI).

Over the last decade, various factors such as Indians opening up to e-commerce, hyperscalers coming to India, and the government mandating storing data locally, have led to an exponential growth in data and this in turn are driving significant demand for data centre capacity in India, which is expected to reach an installed capacity of around 1,400 Mw by the end of 2025. As India’s financial capital and largest city, Mumbai hosts the country’s principal enterprises across the banking, financial services, digital media and other industries, and drives demand for around 43% of the total data centre capacity in India.