Maharashtra is interested in over $300 billion in data center investments

The Chairman of NTPC, Gurdeep Singh, announced on Thursday that the company plans to increase its operational capacity to 244 gigawatts and foresees capital expenditures of ₹16.86 trillion by 2037. These plans are aimed at strengthening the entire energy value chain.

Singh noted that the next decade will be one of the most significant growth periods in NTPC's history, as India's electricity demand will continue to rise amid economic expansion and improved living standards.

Speaking to shareholders at the company's 50th Annual General Meeting (AGM), he emphasized that the energy system structure will undergo rapid changes. He specified that the long-term power ambitions have been increased, with the goal now being to reach a generating capacity of 149 GW by 2032, including 60 GW of renewable energy, with the aim of reaching 244 GW by 2037, excluding energy storage.

NTPC's current capacity is around 91 GW. Furthermore, the chairman stated that the company plans cumulative capital expenditure of approximately ₹16.86 trillion until FY37, which will be distributed across thermal, hydro, pumped storage, renewables, battery storage, mining, and nuclear power. He added that this will be one of the largest investment projects undertaken by an Indian energy company.

NTPC's transformation goes beyond simply increasing generation capacity. The company is also developing competencies across the entire energy chain. Regarding nuclear energy, Singh called it one of the most crucial areas for NTPC's future growth, which aims to capture a 30% share of the ambitious national target of 100 GW of nuclear capacity by 2047 under the Nuclear Energy Mission.

NTPC, which is developing a 2.8 GW nuclear project in Rajasthan in a joint venture with NPCIL, is also interested in establishing standalone nuclear projects. Singh reported that studies and discussions are underway regarding an additional 34 sites in 13 states for nuclear projects and technologies. He stressed that atomic energy will complement both renewable and thermal generation, providing reliable, low-carbon electricity around the clock.

Going further, the chairman informed about the good progress of NTPC's synthetic natural gas project based on coal gasification. He noted that the project is developing with a capacity of 5.75 lakh tonnes per year. After launch, it will be the first such plant in India and will directly replace imported natural gas.

The NTPC Group achieved a record consolidated profit after tax of ₹27,546 crore in FY26, which is 15 percent higher than the previous year. The Group's EBITDA also increased to ₹60,564 crore, and the Group's net worth grew to approximately ₹2.03 trillion.

According to a report by the consulting firm Anarock, the volume of data center (DC) infrastructure in India, which stood at 27 million square feet (msf) at the beginning of the first half of 2026, could triple to reach 101 msf by 2030. This growth is driven by the high adoption rate of cloud technologies, significant capital investments from hyperscalers, and government data localization norms.

The future supply of data centers will largely depend on investment commitments exceeding $300 billion, with projects planned for implementation by the end of the current decade. Major announcements include Google's commitment to invest $15 billion in DCs in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, and nearly $1.7 billion from the Colt DC-RMZ joint venture in Mumbai and Chennai.

Furthermore, Reliance announced the creation of an AI-compatible DC with a capacity of 168 megawatts (MW) in Jamnagar, which will be leased and used by Meta as the first custom-built center in India. These projects are expected to increase the total DC capacity in India from over 1.8 GW in the first half of 2026 to over 6.7 GW by 2030, representing an almost threefold increase over the next four years.

Shobhit Agarwal, CEO of Anarock Capital, noted that such a scale of investment demonstrates long-term confidence in the sector and its strategic importance to the digital economy. He added that this trend reflects the convergence of several structural demand factors, such as the growth of cloud services, increased data consumption, artificial intelligence, digital payments, enterprise digitalization, and the growing need for reliable and secure digital infrastructure.

Political measures, such as the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA) 2023, further emphasize the importance of secure domestic data infrastructure and support the overall requirement for reliable and compliant data governance. The DPDPA 2023 establishes legal requirements for storing and processing personal data within India's borders for numerous categories.

The report indicates that 'this single regulation forces every multinational corporation operating in India to build onshore data infrastructure, making the demand for colocation partially non-discretionary.' Additionally, the status of data center infrastructure has helped improve access to long-term financing at interest rates of around 9.5–10.5 percent for terms up to 12 years. It is expected that the proposed tax holiday until 2047 for eligible global cloud service providers will further enhance India's competitiveness.

Real estate developers target growth in greenfield DCs in new cities

Market observers also believe that the growth of the DC sector in India will be stimulated by geographical diversification, as developers begin to participate in this segment and look beyond the traditional markets of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Chennai. Currently, MMR and Chennai are the largest Indian DC markets in terms of quantity and capacity, as they are located at the intersection of submarine cable routes connecting Europe, West Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia.

However, developers entering the DC market are increasingly considering Delhi, Hyderabad, and Bangalore as new entry points. Hyderabad is expected to be a major beneficiary, as 600–700 MW of DC capacity is planned to be added there by 2030, compared to the current capacity of 178 MW. Among major announcements are nearly 400 MW of DC capacity from NTT Global DC, part of the Tokyo-headquartered IT giant NTT Data, and hundreds of MW of hyperscaler DC park from Tillman Global Holdings, according to the Anarock report.

Similarly, nearly 500–600 MW of DC load is expected to be added to the Delhi-NCR region by 2030. Currently, the DC load in the region stands at 179 MW. Among the major players, Yotta Infrastructure is working on a 90 MW DC in Greater Noida, while Delhi-based developer Anant Raj aims to increase the total IT load capacity to 357 MW by the 2032 fiscal year in Manesar, Panchkula, and Rai in Haryana.

Prestige Group from Bangalore is collaborating with NTT Data to develop a data center facility with a total capacity of 100 MW, including 67.2 MW of critical IT load in Bangalore. Earlier this year, Lodha Group from Mumbai announced its entry into the data center market, possessing 400 acres of ready-to-build land in Palave, Dombivli, for which it secured two major operators—Amazon Web Services (AWS) and STT Global Data Centres, supported by Temasek. This group now plans to develop about 1 GW of power capacity on this site and signed memorandums of understanding worth 1.3 trillion rupees with the Government of Maharashtra.