Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on October 31 that the state is on the verge of becoming the country’s data centre hub and has realised its target of attracting investments worth Rs 20,000 crore and received proposals of 600 mega watt of data centres within a year of announcing the state’s data centre policy.

He also assured investors that their investment will remain safe in the state and that it will go all out to help them.

He said corporates like Adani, WebWerks, Sify, STT and NTT have also submitted their investment proposals that are currently under consideration.

“Uttar Pradesh is on the verge of becoming the country’s data centre hub. Under the data centre policy announced by the state last year, the government had envisaged setting up of 250 mega watt data centres with an investment of Rs 20,000 crore within six years in the state. We have managed to accomplish that target within a year. We have met the target of Rs 20,000 crore worth of investments and received proposals of 600 mega watt data centres so far,” the chief minister said at the launch of the hyperscale data centre, Yotta D1, in Greater Noida developed by the Yotta Infrastructure, an arm of the Hiranandani Group.

Adityanath further said when Uttar Pradesh came up with its policy, the total data centre capacity in the entire country was 400 MW.

The launch of the Greater Noida facility also saw Yotta entering into an MoU with the Government of Uttar Pradesh to invest Rs 39,000 crore in a phased manner over 5 to 7 years. The investments will go towards constructing the data centre campus, and procuring IT equipment and other hardware by Yotta and its customers.

“I am delighted that North India’s first hyperscale data centre – YOTTA D1 – was launched in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous state, which is also fast becoming a hub for data centres. I also congratulate YOTTA on the commitment to invest Rs 39,000 crore with the UP government. It is heartening to see an Indian company invest in the cutting-edge data centre industry and further the Prime Minister’s Digital India vision. With YOTTA’s D1 launch, we are one step closer to bridging the gap in data consumption and data services in India, and I assure the YOTTA team that the UP government will provide all possible support required in the building and operationalisation of the next two buildings – D2 and D3 – in the YOTTA Data Centre park,” the chief minister said.

The facility was inaugurated by Adityanath, and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT and Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.

In addition, the foundation stone laying ceremony of the next two data centre buildings – Yotta D2 and D3 – was also performed during the launch ceremony.

This investment will go towards constructing the data centre campus, and procuring IT equipment and other hardware by Yotta and its customers. The MoU was signed between Arvind Kumar, IAS, IIDC and ACS, Government of Uttar Pradesh, Ritu Maheshwari, IAS, CEO, Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority and Akshay Tripathi, IAS, MD – UP Electronics Corporation Limited (UPLC).

Hiranandani Group firm Yotta Infrastructure said that it will invest Rs 39,000 crore in Uttar Pradesh over the next 5-7 years. This is the first data centre park in the region consisting of six interconnected buildings, offering a capacity of 30,000 racks to be operated by more than 250 MW of power. The estimated cost of the park is Rs 7,000 crore. The project is also expected to generate direct and indirect employment, said Niranjan Hiranandani, MD and Co-founder, Hiranandani Group.

The first of six data centre buildings in the Greater Noida Data Centre Park, Yotta D1 has been set up with an investment of around Rs 1,500 crore and has been built and made operational in a record time of 20 months.

Yotta Infrastructure is building three data centres in Greater Noida. Work on the 20-acre data centre started in January 2021 after the government had allotted the land to the company in 2020. Once fully operational, Yotta D1 will see an additional investment of Rs 5,000 crore in IT equipment.

Yotta D1, a part of the Yotta Greater Noida Data Center Park, is strategically located near the key business hubs of India’s National Capital Region, thus providing an impetus to the region's digital economy.

The data centre spans 3,00,000 sq. ft., across ground plus 7-floors and offers an IT load capacity of 28.8 MW. Yotta D1 can house 5000 racks across seven server floors and offers fail-safe, 48-hour power backup on full load.

Spread across 20 acres, the Yotta Greater Noida Data Center Park will offer a total capacity of 30,000 racks, four dedicated fibre paths and an IT power capacity of 160 MW.

"India is poised to create up to $1 trillion of economic value from the digital economy by 2025, and North India is already a preferred destination for Fortune 500 companies. Recognising the region's potential and underserved data centre demand, Yotta has made continued investments in setting up the Greater Noida Data Center Park, laying a robust foundation for the Digital India growth story. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, has taken many progressive initiatives, including Uttar Pradesh's dedicated data centre policy, to propel the state's economic growth,” said Darshan Hiranandani, co-founder and chairman, Yotta Infrastructure.

Yotta D1 will further strengthen the region's digitisation road map. We see the potential for high-quality data centres in India's infrastructure development, and we have doubled down on our pan-India investment plans to the tune of Rs 30,000 crore. Yotta remains committed to playing its role in the Digital India mission by building world-class data centres and supporting Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of making India a $1 trillion digital economy by 2025, he said.

"We will see an investment of Rs 39,000 crore in and around this campus. The first building has already been completed... We have started work for two other buildings which will be completed in 12-15 months. We will put up one building every 18 months," Hirandani said.

The committed investment includes the investment made for Yotta D1.

"Each data centre will cost Rs 6,500 crore. The committed investment is for six data centres. We have already started work for D2 and DE which shall be ready in 12-15 months," Yotta Infrastructure Co-Founder and CEO, Sunil Gupta said.

“Serving as North India's gateway to the Digital World, Yotta D1 will cater to the full spectrum of digital transformation needs with an elaborate portfolio of solutions that include data centre colocation services, network and connectivity, internet peering, public and hybrid multi-cloud services, professionally managed IT services, IT security and smart cybersecurity, and a host of application modernisation and cloud-enabled services.”

Gupta also mentioned that Yotta had entered into a partnership with state-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) under which the latter’s infrastructure and buildings across the country would be utilised for setting up edge data centre facilities across 56 locations. “We’ve already begun work on seven such facilities,” he said.

The company is also foraying into international shores and its first stop is Bangladesh. It also has plans to set up data centres in South East Asia and West Asia.

In the East, we have already procured land in Kolkata, and work on a hyperscale facility will begin on the same in the coming quarters,” Gupta said.