Island Administration Now Wants A Private, ‘Green’ AI Data Centre on Great Nicobar

The Great Nicobar island – which will lose 130 square kilometers of rainforest to upcoming controversial infrastructure projects worth Rs 92,000 crore – could soon also host a ‘green’ AI data centre run by a private sector entity if the Andaman and Nicobar Administration has its way.

After the Union government gave green clearances to construct an international container terminal, airport, township, power plant and tourism facilities on Great Nicobar, the administration now wants a private sector-led ‘green’ AI data centre too.

The Andaman and Nicobar Administration, in an Expression of Interest (EOI) document published on August 10, has called for entities in the private sector – “reputed hyperscalers, cloud service providers, AI infrastructure companies, data-centre developers and operators, marine-engineering companies, renewable-energy companies, sub-sea connectivity providers and other technically qualified entities” – to explore the feasibility of developing a “Green AI or Data Centre Vertical” in Great Nicobar or Little Andaman, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The proposals have to reach the Office of the Secretary (IT) of the island administration in 45 days (by September 24).

The proposed ‘green’ AI or Data Centre can include hyperscale and/or AI-focused data-centre infrastructure, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and high-performance computing infrastructure, cloud computing and sovereign digital infrastructure, renewable-energy-powered data-centre operations, seawater-based or other innovative cooling systems, freshwater-free cooling solutions, waste to heat recovery and potential utilisation for low-temperature desalination or other productive applications; and submarine and terrestrial digital connectivity.

The document has also identified several potential locations for the proposed data centre: the Hutbay Sea Area or Netaji Nagar Sea Area on Little Andaman island, or the Campbell Bay Sea Area, Anderson Bay Sea Area, Vijay Nagar Bay Sea Area or Gandhi Nagar Bay Sea area on Great Nicobar.

The purpose of the EOI is “to enable interested private-sector entities to undertake a preliminary assessment of the technical, economic, environmental, operational and strategic feasibility” of a green data centre, including the potential locations in Great Nicobar or Little Andaman, infrastructure requirements, power demand, cooling architecture, digital connectivity, environmental safeguards, regulatory requirements and possible investment models, the document accessed by The Wire reads.