Nxtra Data Limited, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel (Airtel), started the construction of its new hyper-scale data center in Kolkata. The company will invest Rs 600 crore in the development of the largest data center in East India, which will serve the underserved markets of the east and northeast regions along with the SAARC countries and fulfill the growing needs of enterprises and global cloud players.
The ground-breaking ceremony was graced by Shri Babul Supriyo, Hon’ble Minister for Information Technology, Electronics and Tourism, Government of West Bengal; Shri Debashis Sen, IAS (Retd), managing director, West Bengal Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (WBHIDCO); Shri Rajeev Kumar, principal secretary of Information Technology and Electronics Department; and Rajesh Tapadia, executive director and chief operating officer, Nxtra by Airtel.
The 25 MW facility will be located 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 center will be a green facility, sourcing clean energy for the running of its operations. Once ready, it will be Nxtra’s first large-scale facility in East India in addition to its already existing 12 large and 120 edge facilities across India. The new center will further cement Nxtra’s position as the nation's largest network of data centers.
“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 centers 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 center will run on [a] renewable source of energy,” said Rajesh Tapadia
Nxtra by Airtel is on an expansion spree and will invest over Rs 5000 crore over the next four years to expand its capacity by 3X to over 400 MW. The company has already invested in and partnered with eight organizations to source more than 180,000 MWh of renewable energy. Nxtra has the ambition to reach net zero by 2031.
