₹23,000 crore to keep the taps on: what Visakhapatnam’s data centre boom will cost in water storage
Visakhapatnam faces a severe water storage deficit as industrial expansion and a boom in data centers drive up demand. Local officials are seeking up to ₹23,000 crore to expand reservoir capacity to meet projected needs.
Why it matters
The report highlights the hidden environmental and infrastructure costs of the rapid digital infrastructure expansion in developing urban centers.
Visakhapatnam can store about 32 tmc ft of water. Within a few years, with data centres and new industry , it will need more than 60. That gap is the subject of a proposal the Vizag Development Council has sent to Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, seeking ₹15,000 crore to ₹23,000 crore for new reservoirs, and of a case that Telugu Desam Party (TDP) State president and Gajuwaka MLA Palla Srinivasa Rao says he is pursuing with the Chief Minister himself.
The proposal, from council president O. Naresh Kumar, puts the city’s municipal need at 40 to 49 crore litres a day (0.014 to 0.017 tmc ft), against a current supply of 33 to 40 crore litres (0.012 to 0.014 tmc ft). Industrial expansion and data centres will push daily needs past 150 crore litres (0.053 tmc ft), or over 60 tmc ft a year.
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