JLL: India’s Colocation Market Set to Double by 2023

The colocation market in India is expected to double its power supply in the next two years, growing from 499MW in 2021 to 1,008MW in 2023, suggests research by real estate specialist JLL.

The primary locations set to benefit are Mumbai (set to add 305MW) and Chennai (71.6MW), which are attracting data center customers with assured power supply, undersea cable access, and large end-user markets.

According to JLL, the first half of the year saw 46.4 MW in colocation uptake across India’s largest data center markets – that’s 90% of the 51.8MW in power capacity that was added during the period.

To meet the rapidly growing demand, the country’s colos are expected to offer more than a gigawatt of power by 2023, translating into more than five million square feet of real estate.

Some of the growth will be driven by individual states. The report notes that in Tamil Nadu, the local government is working on data center incentives; Uttar Pradesh has announced data center policy with the objective of developing a 250 MW industry; Karnataka is drafting a data center policy; in West Bengal, the IT industry has asked the state government for incentives on power supply.

Another interesting factor is 5G: India is yet to launch any public 5G networks, with the spectrum auction delayed until at least May 2022. The report predicts that when it finally arrives, much higher bandwidth offered by 5G “will lead to sharp rise in data usage and related applications that would rely on data centers.”