The Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) on Friday accused the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) of advancing a proposed 54-acre data centre project by a tech giant in Balkum without adequate transparency. The party claimed that citizens and elected representatives were kept uninformed about a project that could strain the city's already limited water resources and pose potential health and environmental risks to nearby residents.
Water Consumption Concerns
Data centres are known to be water-intensive because every prompt into an artificial intelligence chatbot generates heat, requiring continuous cooling systems. NCP (SP) MLA Jitendra Awhad questioned the government's decision to locate the facility in a densely populated residential area, noting that similar projects have faced opposition in several countries, including the United States and Europe.
“A data centre is being set up in Balkum on land purchased from a developer at Rs 1,830 crore. The site is surrounded by eight housing complexes, five schools, and three hospitals within a 1-kilometre radius. Globally, data centres are typically located away from residential zones. We have no objection if such a project is shifted to the sparsely populated Thane rural area,” Awhad said.
Policy and Impact
Under the Maharashtra IT-ITeS Policy 2023, data centres are permitted to operate in any zone, including residential, green, and no-development areas. The TMC has not shared details of the proposed project or its impact. However, according to a report released earlier this year by the Delhi-based public policy think tank Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a 100-megawatt hyperscale data centre can consume around 20 lakh litres of water per day for cooling. The report also estimated that India's data centres consumed around 150 billion litres of water in 2024-2025 and could require approximately 358 billion litres annually by 2030.
Health and Environmental Risks
According to the Washington-based Environmental and Energy Study Institute, residents living near such facilities have reported health concerns linked to prolonged exposure to noise generated by data centres. “Globally, concerns are being raised over the enormous water and power consumption, heat generation, noise pollution, and environmental footprint of data centres,” said Awhad. He questioned the absence of an environmental impact assessment report in the public domain.
Anti-noise activist Dr. Mahesh Bedekar said, “The city’s capacity to absorb the additional burden on infrastructure must be examined, and it must be ensured that noise levels remain within permissible limits.”
Political Response
Thane district NCP president Manoj Pradhan, who also protested the lack of information from the civic administration, warned of a protest against the project. He said the issue will be raised at the municipal general body meeting next week. Despite repeated attempts, there was no response from Thane Municipal Commissioner Saurabh Rao.
