Alphabet Inc’s Google is in advanced talks to buy a 22.5-acre land parcel in Juinagar, Navi Mumbai for building its first captive data centre in India.

California-headquartered Google is conducting due diligence for the leasehold land parcel owned by the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC), which is currently with Pune-based Gramercy Trade Industries. The potential deal is estimated at around Rs 850 crore.

Factors like rising preference for India among global data centre majors, and the submarine cable infrastructure linking Mumbai and Chennai to Singapore, Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, has helped position India as an attractive location for data centre development, expansion, and investment.  The trend is also linked to data localisation norms and the government’s push through necessary clearances and infrastructure in a time-bound manner.