ESR enters data centre market with Rs 900 crore investment in Navi Mumbai

Asia-Pacific focused real asset owner and manager ESR is foraying into India’s data center market with a plan to invest around Rs 900 crore to develop a hyperscale, multi-storey asset in Navi Mumbai’s Rabale locality.

The company has already pre-leased the new ESR Rabale MU1 Data Center to a major information and communications technology company.

It is being built on a 3.25-acre land parcel, and will hold a facility load of up to 60 MW, providing scalability to support the continued growth in cloud computing, AI, and enterprise workloads.


“India is one of the most compelling data center growth markets globally, driven by rapid digital adoption, data localisation requirements, and the rise of cloud and AI workloads. The market is also supported by the country’s continued investments in power grid transformation and the abundance of renewable energy available at competitive prices,” said Stuart Gibson, Co-founder and Co-CEO, ESR.

This development marks a key milestone in ESR’s pan-APAC data center pipeline of over 3 GW, and highlights its commitment to long-term growth of the local economy.

“ESR’s entry into India’s data center sector is grounded in disciplined site selection, deep infrastructure readiness, and an execution‑focused development approach. MU1 is a landmark project for us, combining scale, connectivity, and power security in one of Mumbai’s most established data center clusters,” Abhijit Malkani, CEO, India, ESR, told ET..

As digital demand continues to surge, according to Malkani, ESR is well‑placed to build high‑quality data center hubs across the country, supported by its APAC experience, strong capital partnerships, and integrated development platform.

“MU1 reflects ESR’s blueprint for developing next-generation, high-density data centres. The development builds on our proven track record across APAC and highlights the strength of our data centre platform, underpinned by a pipeline of over 3 GW of secured land and power,” said Diarmid Massey, CEO, Data Centres, ESR.

Designed and developed by ESR, MU1 will be delivered as a powered shell facility and is located within the Airoli-Rabale data center cluster, a key availability zone for Mumbai’s cloud region, positioned along major enterprise and technology corridors that support India’s expanding digital economy.

ESR’s entry comes at a time when several global infrastructure and private equity players are stepping up investments in India’s fast-growing data center sector, driven by rising cloud adoption, AI workloads, and data localisation mandates.

India’s data center market is witnessing strong demand driven by cloud adoption, data localisation norms, digital public infrastructure and the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and data-intensive applications.

Enterprises across banking, financial services, e-commerce, and technology are shifting workloads to the cloud, while global hyperscalers continue to expand capacity. Mumbai remains the country’s largest hub due to submarine cable connectivity, network density, and concentration of enterprise users.

On the supply side, capacity additions are underway across Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, but availability of land, reliable power and approvals continues to constrain pace of development. Pre-leasing has therefore become common, vacancy levels remain tight in core clusters and pricing has held firm, particularly for scalable, high-density facilities with assured power and connectivity.