Lumina CloudInfra, a data centre platform owned and managed by Blackstone’s Real Estate and Tactical Opportunities funds, has announced its plans to invest over $ 300 million, approximately Rs 25 billion, in the development of a hyperscale data centre campus in the Airoli locality of Navi Mumbai. According to reports, this venture will mark Lumina CloudInfra's first data centre investment in India and is expected to strengthen the institutional investor's presence in the Asian data centre market. The Airoli data centre project, spanning across 6.3 acre of land, will be established in two phases and will have a capacity of over 60 MW of critical IT load. The construction of the first phase is anticipated to commence soon and should be completed by 2025. India is experiencing high growth, and we expect a substantial increase in data centre demand due to the rapid surge in data consumption, digitization of the economy, the advent of 5G, and the trend of data localization. Our initial data centre is a crucial milestone for Lumina and India's digital transformation journey. Lumina CloudInfra also has plans to establish its second data centre in the Mahape locality of Navi Mumbai. Sujeet Deshpande, CEO & Co-Founder of Lumina India, highlighted the immense demand for data centres in India, considering its status as a hub for leading technology and IT service companies. India's data centre ecosystem is experiencing strong and continuous growth, driven by the proliferation of data. The industry capacity is expected to witness significant expansion in the next 1-2 years, with Mumbai maintaining its position as the leader, accounting for 52% of the country's total capacity. The data centre sector in India is becoming a promising opportunity for global investors and prominent developers. Substantial investments are flowing into this segment, leading to the creation of multiple new markets and the rapid development of data centre campuses in key cities such as Mumbai and Chennai. Also read: Realty boom in Telangana hits a pause Indian REITs drive growth in commercial real estate market