Vizag in for a big change with data centre

Visakhapatnam: The 300-MW Integrated Data Park would transform the way Visakhapatnam would be looking in future, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said.

Laying foundation stone for the Integrated Data Centre at Rushikonda Hills in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said the data centre would come up with 100 percent renewable energy at an investment outlay of Rs 21,800 crore in 130-acre of land. "With the Adani Group bringing submarine cable from Singapore, the Integrated Data Centre is going to be the biggest park in the country," the Chief Minister mentioned.

He said the facility would boost the IT sector, connectivity, internet usage and data speed. "From a Tier II city, the data centre will aid in transforming Visakhapatnam into Tier I city,” he said.

“It would provide employment opportunities to 40,000 people approximately. The facility gains another significance as it is totally going to be developed with green energy. The entire power comes from renewable sources and it would be a gamechanger in the IT sector," he added.

The facility will be set up with a combination of IT development park, IT skill development centre and recreational hub which would capitalise cloud services, and eventually boost digital economy.

Adani Group would invest Rs 21,844 crore to set up a 200-MW Integrated Data Centre, technology and business park in Madhurawada. Additionally, the group will invest Rs 7,210 crore to develop another 100-MW Integrated Data Center, technology, and business park in Kapuluppada, CM said.

These projects are expected to provide 39,815 direct employment to people and 10,610 indirect employment and would be grounded in seven years. Appreciating the state government's decentralised development and volunteer system, Rajesh Adani, who spearheads the energy vertical of the Adani Group, said the group will provide both direct and indirect employment through the facility.

"With advancement in Artificial Intelligence, high definition content and massive digitisation, the need to compute and store has increased exponentially.

The data centres would serve as digital embassies and would be connected through a network of undersea cables coming from South East Asia and landing in proximity to the ports in the state.