Ascendas Property Fund Trustee Pte. Ltd, the trustee-manager of Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust) announced on Monday that it will invest around ₹1200 crore to develop and operate phase one of its first data centre campus in India.
The campus, expected to be one of the largest data centre campuses will be located in Airoli, Navi Mumbai with total potential built up area of up to 5,75,000 square feet and 90 megawatts of power. Ascendas said the data centre campus will have two buildings. In phase one, the first building, will have a built-up area of about 325,000 sq ft. It is scheduled to be ready by mid-2024.
Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO of the trustee-manager of a-iTrust, said, “Our entry into the data centre sector in India will diversify a-iTrust’s portfolio into an attractive and highly scalable asset class.”
“Developing our first data centre campus with support from our sponsor, CapitaLand, will allow us to leverage the CapitaLand Group’s data centre expertise and gives us complete control over the design and quality of the data centre. We look to improve our portfolio resilience through diversification into new economy asset classes such as data centres and life sciences. As we grow further, we will continue to be prudent in our capital management and nimble in seizing investment opportunities, to maximise unit holders’ returns,” Dasgupta added.
According to the company, India’s demand for data centres are in rising tend due to improvements in technology Dinfrasstructe an increasing adoption of 5G, AI, cloud and IoT.
The data centre campus site which the company is acquiring is in a prime location in the Eastern Express Highway. The acquisition of the site is expected to be completed by the third quarter of 2021. Navi Mumbai has emerged as a preferred data centre location since it offers proximity to sea cable landing stations, larger land parcels with clear title, abundant and scalable power, developed infrastructure and seamless vendor neutral network connectivity.
The company said, the data centre campus, once fully developed, will have an overall capacity to host approximately 8,500 racks and operate at an efficient power usage. The data centre will adopt sustainable design principles and green building standards featuring intelligent energy management systems, solar panels, and waterless cooling systems.
