Noida, Greater Noida set to become data centre hub: Adityanath

After inaugurating the Yotta data centre, located amid newly built group housing clusters along a 130 metre wide road connecting Noida with Dadri, the chief minster also laid the foundation stone for two more centres

Inaugurating the Yotta Infrastructure’s largest data storage centre in the country in Greater Noida’s Sector Knowledge Park 5 on Monday, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath said the state was soon going to be become a “hub of data centres”, fulfilling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of “digital India”.

After the event, he left for Gautam Buddha University in Greater Noida to meet party workers and officials. Adityanath will also inaugurate Ganga water and other infrastructure projects in Greater Noida on Tuesday (HT Photo)

After inaugurating the Yotta data centre, located amid newly built group housing clusters along a 130 metre wide road connecting Noida with Dadri, the chief minster also laid the foundation stone for two more centres.

“When we talk about data, the entire world looks to us. We have 150 crore mobile customers in our country and 20% of the total data in the world is from India. But we had only 2% storage capacity. Now, for the first time, the Hiranandani Group id setting up a data centre, which not only nurtures PM Modi’s dream of “digital India” but have also made it take a big leap forward,” said Adityanath, who reached Greater Noida on Monday evening for his two-day visit.

“Data driven companies have a great future here. Noida and Greater Noida are prime centres for the IT business. Domestic and global investors have made investments and we want to bring in more investments. The state has the best manpower and the youth of Uttar Pradesh will help fulfil the promises of the “double engine government” by helping create a five trillion economy,” Adityanath said.

“Until 4.5 years ago, no chief minister would visit Noida for fear of the “Noida jinx ( a superstition among the political class that the incumbent CM would lose the seat after visiting Noida)”. I faced questions from my political friends about the Noida jinx. But I never cared for my chair as that will come and go. We have nurtured UP as the best destination for investment,” said Adityanath.

He further said, “During Covid-19 pandemic, we used technology to protect 135 crore people. There was a time when the mafia ruled this state and the administration had no control. But now UP has changed and investors and lining up.”

Bharatiya Janata Party MP Rajiv Chandershekhar said, “The digital India had three goals -- technology improvement, fuel economic growth and make the country a “technology giver” rather than a consumer. Earlier, Bengaluru, Hydrabad and Pune were known for technology but now Yogi government has fulfilled the digital India dream.”

Yotta Infrastructure has spent ₹1,500 crore to build one of six buildings under the data centre project. It is set to invest another ₹5,000 crore once this initial project becomes fully operational. Apart from inaugurating Hyperscale Data Centre (D1), the chief minister also laid the foundation stone for two more data centres under this project, which is spread on 20 acres.

The Yotta Infrastructure has also signed an MOU with the Uttar Praedsh government to invest ₹39,000 crore in the state, over the next five years.

The work on the Hyperscale Data Centre started in June 2020 and has become operational within 20 months.

“We decided to set up this centre in this region owing to multiple reasons -- it is earthquake safe, the road connectivity is good and it met all our parameters. The state government also convinced us to invest here,” said Darshan Hiranandani co-founder and chairman of Yotta Infrastructure.

“The centre will run on 180MW electricity and will benefit digital customers. With six million high definition movie storage capacity or 5,000 racks here, the project will make Greater Noida a hot market for data centres. We have 2,000 corporates and global giants as customers,” said Sunil Gupta, chief executive officer, Yotta Infrastructure.