India’s digital thirst: A booming data centre corridor in Uttar Pradesh’s GB Nagar is running on empty wells

In the first part of this series, Down To Earth (DTE) explored what data centres are, why they require vast quantities of water to operate, and how their rapid expansion into water-stressed regions such as Greater Noida is already affecting local communities struggling for access to clean water. The second part travelled south to Karnataka, India’s Silicon Valley, to examine how the same pattern is unfolding in and around Bengaluru.

This third part returns to Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddha Nagar (GB Nagar), now emerging as one of India’s biggest data centre corridors, to uncover how the promise of “24x7 water supply” for billion-dollar digital parks coexists with neighbourhoods where residents pay for every drop they drink.

Khora Colony is every city dweller’s worst nightmare. Located in Sector 62 of GB Nagar, the area is a hub for heavy industry. However, the living conditions here are dire. A massive open drain runs through the neighbourhood, roads are broken, and residents live amid a stench that never quite leaves the air. Yet, these visible hardships mask a graver problem — the steady, alarming fall of groundwater levels.

Just 1.2 kilometres away stands the construction site of AdaniConneX, a 50:50 joint venture between India’s Adani Group and the United States-based global data centre operator EdgeConneX. The company’s mission is to build what it calls “an environmentally and socially conscious 1 gigawatt (GW) data centre infrastructure platform by 2030.”

Residents of Khora Colony, however, have never heard of it. Ram Chauhan, a vegetable vendor who has lived here for 15 years, said he was fed up with the situation. “We don’t get any government water supply. We depend entirely on groundwater, which is fast depleting,” he said. 

Another resident, Yogita Chauhan, explains how the crisis is hurting their finances. “Our submersible pumps fail again and again as water levels drop. Repairs cost a lot. We also call for tankers every two or three days, paying Rs 1,500 ($16.89) for just 500 litres,” she says.

Another resident, who requested anonymity, tells DTE that groundwater levels have plunged from 120 feet in the early 2000s to about 600 feet today. Many families have left the colony because of this. “We might have to do the same,” she added.

Construction at AdaniConneX’s site is ongoing and tightly guarded. According to company data, the facility will have an IT load capacity of 150 MW, which would require roughly 3.9 billion litres of water annually if traditional cooling towers were used. These towers rely on water to dissipate heat from servers into the atmosphere. However, AdaniConneX claims to use air-cooled chillers instead of the more water-intensive, water-cooled systems.

“If a data centre uses dry coolers, it doesn’t consume much water, although its energy use rises,” Shaolei Ren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside, told DTE.

Nearby, in Sector 132, Sify Technologies operates two data centres. According to the company’s environmental, social, and governance report, all its data centres use freshwater for all operations, sourced from municipal supply and groundwater.

The first facility has an IT power load of 10.8 megawatts (MW), while the second — just one kilometre away — has a total power capacity of more than 130 MW. Using standard estimates that a 1 MW data centre consumes 26 million litres of water annually, Sify’s two centres combined could be using around 3.64 billion litres of freshwater every year.

Residents of Galli No. 25, a cramped street opposite the Sify facilities, receive piped water from the government and rely less on borewells. But awareness of the data centres’ existence is low. “I’ve seen the building, but I don’t know what a data centre is,” says food vendor Rohit Rathore. “These companies haven’t done anything for us. The educated get jobs, but what about the rest of us?”

Sectors 62 and 132 fall under the jurisdiction of the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority (NOIDA), created under the UP Industrial Development Act, 1976, to oversee planned industrial growth. GB Nagar district comprises four development blocks, Bisrakh, Dadri, Dankaur and Jewar. Groundwater levels in Bisrakh, which includes Noida and much of Greater Noida, are already classified as overexploited.

In fact, things do not look good for all of GB Nagar. The stage of groundwater extraction in GB Nagar is 104.79 per cent, the Dynamic Ground Water Resources of India 2023 report by the Central Ground Water Board showed. This means more water is being extracted than can be naturally replenished each year. 

Policy action

GB Nagar has become one of India’s busiest data centre corridors, now home to 17 operational or upcoming facilities, including those by AdaniConneX, Yotta Data Services Pvt Ltd, Nxtra, CtrlS, and STT, according to visual directory Data Center Map.

But the state’s ambitions run high. In 2021, the UP government unveiled the Uttar Pradesh Data Center Policy 2021, a five-year framework to attract Rs 30,000 crore ($3.4 billion) in investments and develop a 900 MW data centre industry across the state. The policy also aims to establish at least eight private data centre parks — large campuses housing multiple facilities.

The momentum is already visible. In 2023, data service provider STT GDC India signed a memorandum of understanding with the state government to invest about Rs 4,100 crore in new centres, describing Noida as “a promising and emerging” hub. The company’s two major parks, planned for Noida and Greater Noida, are expected to be completed within the next decade. Meanwhile, Yotta Infrastructure has already established its first data centre park in Greater Noida — part of the same development boom examined in part 1 of this series.

As of June 2025, the total proposed capacity for data centres in the state has reached 644 MW, drawing investments worth Rs 21,342.9 crore, according to government data. Of this, 99 MW has already been commercialised, including projects by Yotta, NTT Global Data Centres, Adani Enterprises Ltd, and STT Global Data Centre.

Like Karnataka, the Uttar Pradesh government has introduced a dedicated single-window clearance system to fast-track industrial projects, including data centres. The Department of IT and Electronics has set up a project management unit (PMU), staffed by outsourced professionals and consultants, to help implement the policy, oversee investment proposals, and recommend the disbursement of incentives. The PMU reports to an empowered committee, which clears projects worth over Rs 200 crore before they go to the state cabinet for final approval.

Businesses are pleased. “Greater Noida’s strong policy and administrative ecosystem through the UP government’s Data Center Policy, and the facilitative approach of the Noida Authority, create a business-friendly environment that streamlines approvals and makes it a preferred data centre destination,” Yotta told DTE.

But, as in Karnataka, the Uttar Pradesh Data Center Policy 2021 is largely silent on water. It merely states that industrial area development authorities such as NOIDA and Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) will ensure “24x7 uninterrupted water supply” to data centre units operating in their jurisdictions.

Yotta, which is based in Mumbai, told DTE that UP has explicit clauses requiring data centres to use treated, non-potable water, build on-site recycling systems, and avoid drawing from drinking water reserves.” The company further asserted that “UP’s policy mandates park-level water treatment and prohibits groundwater extraction.” The policy only mentions that data centre parks shall set up water treatment plants.

Government apathy

When DTE visited the offices of NOIDA, officials gave this reporter an incomplete list of data centres in their records, which they acknowledged was not comprehensive. They could not confirm the source of water for these facilities, though some mentioned the source for industries is recycled water. They could not provide figures for their water consumption either — despite being the authorities responsible for supplying them round-the-clock water under the state’s data centre policy. GNIDA officials gave similar responses.

A senior official from Jal Nigam, the state agency responsible for providing drinking water and sewerage facilities, spoke to DTE on condition of anonymity. “NOIDA forwards requests from companies to us, detailing their water requirements. We supply water based on per capita calculations. If there’s a shortfall, we ask industries to meet their needs independently or obtain permission from the groundwater department,” the official explained. Jal Nigam, he added, also provides treated water to industries at Rs 5 per kilolitre (KL), typically for construction purposes.

At the Ground Water Department office, Executive Engineer Vishwajeet Singh confirmed that most of GB Nagar is a notified area, meaning groundwater extraction is restricted due to overexploitation. “We have a district groundwater council, comprising officials from the pollution control board and environment department, which issues permissions. We grant no-objection certificates only if companies commit to recharging two litres of groundwater for every one litre extracted,” Singh said.

He added that industries must install rainwater harvesting systems or ponds, use flow meters to track usage, and submit weekly data to the department. “Groundwater is not a big problem in UP,” he claimed. “We charge Rs 1.2 for every KL extracted.”

DTE shared a list of data centres in UP with Singh, requesting information on which facilities had permits for groundwater extraction and how much they were drawing. Despite following up, there was no response.

Unlike in Bengaluru, GB Nagar’s official records contain no publicly available data on water use by data centres. Environmental clearances reviewed by DTE include only a vague clause: “If the proposed project is situated in notified area of ground water extraction, where creation of new wells for ground water extraction is not allowed, requirement of fresh water shall be met from alternate water sources other than ground water or legally valid source and permission from the competent authority shall be obtained to use it.”

DTE also filed Right to Information requests with NOIDA, GNIDA, and the Ground Water Authority in UP’s capital, Lucknow. As of publication, no replies have been received.

This is part three of a four-part series. Part four will examine how major data centre companies report, and obscure, their water consumption data. Read part one and part two of the series.

This story was produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network.