The Trustee-Manager of Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust), Ascendas Property Fund Trustee Pte. Ltd., expects to invest roughly Rs.1200 crore (S$216.6 million) to create and run phase one of its first data centre complex on a prominent site in India.

According to a statement on the company's website, the project is located in Airoli, a rising data centre cluster in Navi Mumbai.

"It will invest an estimated Rs.12 billion (Singapore dollar 216.6 million) to create and run phase one of its first data centre campus on a prime site in India," Ascendas Property Fund Trustee Pte Ltd, the trustee-manager of Ascendas India Trust (a-iTrust), said.

The 6.6-acre greenfield site will be transformed into a fully-fitted data centre campus with a total potential built-up area of up to 5,75,000 square feet and a power capacity of 90 megawatts
(MW).

The third-party vendor acquisition of the site is projected to be completed by the third quarter of 2021. Two buildings will make up the data centre complex. The first building in phase one, which is expected to be completed in 2Q 2024, will have a built-up area of approximately 325,000 sqft.

Global technological giants and cloud service providers, as well as significant domestic enterprise clients, will be among the company's target customers.

“India's expanding data consumption and need for quality solutions give a good opportunity for CapitaLand's entry into the country's burgeoning data centre market”, said He Jihong, Chief Executive Officer, Data Centre, and Chief Corporate Strategy Officer, CapitaLand Group.

“Following the recent acquisition of our first hyperscale data centre in China, one of the world's largest data centre marketplaces, we are acquiring the site for the development of our first data centre in India”, continued Jihong.

As the data centre landscape evolves, so is the industry from its current capacity of 447 MW to 1,007 MW by 2023. According to JLL, demand is expected to rise further as a result of the approaching rollout of 5G, IoT-connected products, data localization, and cloud usage, owing to the increased reliance on digital connectivity.

To meet the industry's six million sq. ft. greenfield construction opportunity, India's data centre sector will need to invest $3.7 billion over the next three years.

"Our entry into the data centre industry in India will diversify a-portfolio iTrust's into an attractive and highly scalable asset class”, said Sanjeev Dasgupta, Chief Executive Officer, Trustee-Manager, Ascendas India Trust.

He asserted that India has the world's second-fastest-growing digital economy, and that the country's vast market size, combined with rising data localization trends, confirms its market entry approach.

He stated that the company is diversifying into new economy asset classes such as data centres and medical sciences to boost portfolio resilience. According to a-iTrust, the demand for data centres in India is expanding as technology infrastructure improves and new technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, cloud, and the Internet of Things become more widely adopted.

"With the help of our sponsor, CapitaLand, we will be able to harness the CapitaLand Group's data centre expertise while also having complete control over the design and quality of the data centre," Dasgupta explained.

In August 2007, a-iTrust became Asia's first Indian property trust when it was launched on the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Ltd. Its goal is to acquire income-producing real estate in India that is mostly used as office space.

The asset under management of a-iTrust was 2.1 billion Singapore dollars as of December 31, 2020. In India, a-iTrust owns and operates seven world-class IT business parks and one logistics park.