A $15 billion data centre in Vizag: So WHY this SECRECY ?
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
When a government or corporate entity opts for opacity and secrecy rather than transparency, it often indicates that it has much to conceal.
By Ajith Pillai in Chennai
When a government or corporate entity opts for opacity and secrecy rather than transparency, it often indicates that it has much to conceal.
The $15 billion Adani-Google hyper-scale project in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, exemplifies this.
From the beginning, there has been a noticeable reluctance to share information with the citizens of this Tier 2 port city, who will be the most affected by the mega project.
By all accounts, it was a covertly conceived project.
But for a select few in the government, both at the Centre in Delhi, and at the state level, no one in Visakhapatnam had any inkling that a venture of this huge scale, requiring hundreds of acres of land, consuming an enormous amount of power and water, was being planned in the vicinity of the city. So, when the mega venture was announced in October last year, it took almost everyone in Visakhapatnam by surprise.
Says VS Krishna, based in Vizag, of the Human Rights Forum (HRF), which has been raising questions about the hyper-scale data centre project: “It came as a surprise for all of us. No one had heard about the Adani-Google project. Nothing was ever discussed. And then, one fine day, we were told that a 1- (GW) gigawatt project in Vizag had been agreed upon.”
More than the surprise element, what made some see red was an apparent attempt to keep citizens and groups like HRF ill-informed, or at best partially informed. Consider this:
-- The public and media were made aware of the establishment of a 1 GW capacity data centre for which land had been allotted in the following locations: Tarluvada, Adavivaram, and Mudasarlova in Visakhapatnam district and at Rambilli in the Anakapalli district, which is located 65 kilometres from Visakhapatnam. According to Government Order (G.O. MS. 40 dated 11-10-25), a total of 480 acres of land has been allocated across these sites for the project.
-- When HRF reviewed the Environment Clearance accorded to the project on April 18, 2026, it found that the project was not 1GW capacity as presented earlier. Overall, it was a 2 GW project with two data centres—one at Tarluvada and the other at Rambilli.
The public was kept in the dark about the added capacity.
-- Together, the two projects would entail a combined grid demand of 1,626 MW, a backup diesel fleet of approximately 354 generators with a total capacity of 971.5 MW, and on-site High-Speed Diesel (HSD) storage of 2,520 kilolitres.
The two data centres, according to the HRF, are major industrial installations. But they were cleared as “Building /Construction Projects”, under Category B2 of the EIA Notification 2006.
-- As B2 projects, they did not require a complete Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which involves the Union environment ministry. An elaborate EIA report, considered to be more objective, would have identified significant environmental and social impacts. It would also have necessitated a mandatory public hearing at or near the project site, allowing citizens to express their concerns.
Instead, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate gave environment clearance to the projects based on the deliberations of the Andhra Pradesh State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and the supporting Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) prepared for both projects by the same consultant. The HRF alleges that the two EMPs were not independent appraisals. “They were the same template, applied twice, and waved through twice.”
-- According to Krishna, the projects have not been independently or thoroughly evaluated. “State agencies have turned environmental appraisal into a mere paperwork formality. A few individuals have simply signed on the dotted line.
-- Essential questions have been overlooked, such as: What is the actual water and power demand? What will be the impact on air quality from large-scale diesel backup systems? What are the consequences for nearby forests and wildlife habitats, and communities living nearby?”
-- The government's refusal to disclose the contents of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the project stakeholders and the government raises concerns that there may be information being concealed. Typically, such documents should be accessible to the public, as citizens have the right to know about the commitments made, concessions granted, and the safeguards included in the MoU.
The government's lack of transparency in this matter clearly contradicts the fundamental principles of the Right to Information Act, 2005.
-- The freshwater usage cited in the Environment Clearance is 239 KLD (kilolitres per day; one kilolitre is 1000 litres ) for Tarluvada and 207 KLD for Rambilli. This water will be supplied by the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Department. The power for the two data centres will be provided by the Transmission Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (APTRANSCO).
-- Experts point out that the claims that this hyper-scale facility will run on 100 per cent renewable energy are technically untenable. The state’s grid cannot supply uninterrupted renewable power without fossil-fuel back-up. The data centres will generate massive carbon emissions.
-- The land allotted is only 860 metres away from the Kambalkonda Wildlife Sanctuary and 450 metres from a notified eco-sensitive zone. Moreover, the land extends to 120 metres from the Mudasarlova reservoir, an important drinking water source for Visakhapatnam city.
-- The proposed project site falls within the catchment area, and any major construction will inhibit water inflows into the reservoir. “You know what happens if the catchment area is disturbed by construction. Visakhapatnam will face a severe water crisis,” notes Krishna.
The Andhra Pradesh government, in its enthusiasm to become the “digital hub of India” has promised to create 6 GW of data centre capacity in the state by 2030. As much as 5 GW will be concentrated in the Visakhapatnam region.
To attract Big Tech companies from Silicon Valley, the government has already showered its generosity on the Adani-Google project. The non-fiscal and fiscal incentives include tax exemptions, land allocation, and discounted tariffs and reimbursements for water, power, and infrastructure, amounting to an astounding Rs 22,002 crore over 20 years.
Such corporate giveaways, the HRF notes, divert scarce public resources away from essential sectors like healthcare, education and rural development. It feels “that in a region like Visakhapatnam, where youth unemployment is high, public investment should be directed towards sustainable, community-rooted industries that generate livelihoods and build local resilience, not resource-guzzling behemoths that exacerbate inequality.”
A paper published in March this year by Brett Hemenway Falk from the Department of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania and Gerry Tsoukalas from the Wharton School explores how AI can lead to unemployment and kill businesses.
In "The AI Layoff Trap," the authors argue that if AI displaces human workers more quickly than the economy can reabsorb them, it could drastically erode consumer demand. Consequently, businesses may fail as demand declines due to a sharp decline in the number of salaried employees with disposable incomes.
Unlike other disruptions, where displacement has been self-correcting, with the automation of existing work offset by the creation of new tasks or occupations, the so-called AI revolution will leave those rendered jobless in a situation where they cannot up-skill to fit into a business model that prioritises automation over human participation.
Hyper-scale data centers, such as those proposed in Visakhapatnam, are expected to create only a limited number of jobs. Furthermore, the generative AI technologies they support could lead to job displacement across various sectors nationwide.
Given the current situation, where AI companies like Anthropic are urging a pause in AI development, should the government consider delaying its approval and facilitate a healthy, transparent discussion with citizens before giving the green light to major tech companies like Google?
Perhaps this statement from HRF puts things in perspective: “HRF believes that genuine technological progress must be decentralised, sustainable and anchored in local autonomy, not centralised, extractive, destructive and dominated and controlled by Big Tech. Moreover, Google is no ‘neutral tech’. In the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, through Project Nimbus and its cloud-AI contracts with the Israeli military, Google is an active enabler, powering the surveillance, targeting and logistical machinery used in Gaza’s mass slaughter…
“It has shattered any pretense of corporate ethics and is deeply embedded in a genocidal campaign. Even amid Gaza’s famine, the company allowed Israeli State propaganda ads on YouTube, falsely claiming “there was food!”. Its tech amplifies apartheid, whitewashes starvation and ethnic cleansing, turning algorithms into accomplices and silencing truth.”
It seems suppressing information, criticism and dissent is a significant aspect of the data center initiative in Visakhapatnam.
On May 31, Instagram restricted two posts by the Human Rights Forum (HRF) in India. One post promoted an online petition calling for transparency and accountability regarding the proposed data center projects, while the other documented ongoing work at the Adavivaram site, which is located near the Mudasarlova reservoir.
This post raised concerns about the legality of the activities being carried out at the site, given the lack of required permissions. Instagram stated that the restrictions were imposed under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
These actions are not isolated incidents. The Environmental Reporting Collective (ERC), an international consortium of investigative journalists, has publicly disclosed that Instagram blocked access in India to a video connected to its investigation into the environmental and social impacts of data centre expansion in Visakhapatnam. According to the ERC, Meta informed it that the restriction was imposed pursuant to a notice from the Government of India under Section 79(3)(b) of the Information Technology Act, 2000.
Krishna says that HRF is also aware of at least 20 short videos, from 11 different accounts, critical of the proposed data centres, that have been blocked by Instagram. The action is in keeping with alleged ‘Silicon Valley Thinking’, which sees democracy and transparency as an impediment to technological progress.
The big question is: should the citizens of Andhra Pradesh have the right to know about developments in their state that could significantly, and drastically, impact their lives and livelihoods?
Editor’s Note: This is the second part of a story on Vishakhapatnam’s hypers-cale data centres.
Ajith Pillai is member, Editorial College, senior editor and writer, independentink.in. A seasoned journalist working in the profession for 40 years, he has reported out of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Andhra Pradesh and Kashmir on a broad spectrum of events related to politics, crime, conflict and social change. He has worked with leading publications, including The Sunday Observer, Indian Post, Pioneer, The Week and India Today, where he headed the Chennai bureau. He was part of the team led by Editor Vinod Mehta that launched Outlook magazine and headed its current affairs section till 2012. Under his watch, Outlook broke several stories that attracted national attention and questioned the government of the day. He has written two books—'Off the Record: Untold Stories from a Reporter’s Diary,’ and a novel, ‘Junkland Journeys’.
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