Data centres in Andaman & Nicobar Islands: Why did the Admin express interest and withdrew it later

The story so far: Within days of calling for feasibility proposals for a private-sector-led green AI Data centre in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the administration has withdrawn the Expression of Interest document it published this month. While the administration had said it was exploring private-sector interest in building such a project near Little Andaman and Great Nicobar Island, it has cited “administrative reasons” in withdrawing the EoI just four days later.

What did the A&NI Admin call for?

In the EoI issued on August 10, the A&NI administration stated that feasibility proposals may include solutions for “renewable energy powered data centre operations” that use “freshwater-free” cooling solutions, such as “seawater-based or other innovative cooling systems”. The EoI noted that it was calling for proposals for “hyperscale and/or AI-focused data-centre infrastructure; GPU and high-performance computing infrastructure; cloud computing and sovereign digital infrastructure”.

The proposals may also include “Waste-heat recovery and potential utilisation for low-temperature desalination or other productive applications and Submarine and terrestrial digital connectivity,” the EoI said.

The feasibility proposals were invited from “reputed hyperscalers, cloud service providers, AI infrastructure companies, data-centre developers and operators, marine-engineering companies, renewable-energy companies, sub-sea connectivity providers and other technically qualified entities” — either individually or as part of a consortium.

The administration said at the time, “The proposed initiative is intended to explore the development of a future-ready, energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable digital infrastructure ecosystem leveraging the strategic location and natural advantages of the Islands, including access to seawater, potential for renewable-energy integration, submarine optical-fibre connectivity and proximity to important Indo-Pacific maritime routes.”

The EoI for the data centre project further clarified that it is intended to elicit no-cost, no-commitment proposals exploring the feasibility of such a project and should not be construed as a tender or a request for proposals. It called it a “market sounding” exercise to “identify potential private sector interest”. The proposals must be submitted to the office of the IT Secretary in A&NI by September 24 this year.

What areas were identified for the data centre exploration?

The administration’s call for feasibility proposals notes that potential areas identified for this project include the Hutbay Sea Area and Netaji Nagar Sea Area on Little Andaman and the Campbell Bay, Anderson Bay, Vijay Nagar Bay, and Gandhi Nagar Bay Sea Areas on Great Nicobar Island.

On Great Nicobar Island, local Nicobarese communities are already opposing the Union government’s ₹91,000 crore mega-infrastructure project that involves building an airport, a transshipment port, and a tourism-led township. The draft master plan for this project, which is meant to account for water, power, and connectivity infrastructure for the larger development project on the island, has no mention of a potential Green AI/Data Centre Vertical.

In fact, the sea areas identified for feasibility proposals for data centres are along the bays of GNI that have been marked for development of one of two wildlife corridors (Gandhi Nagar Bay), agriculture, biodiversity tourism, and fish and poultry (Anderson Bay), coastal and business tourism activities (Vijay Nagar Bay), and residential pockets, institutional and administrative buildings (Campbell Bay).

The withdrawal:

Four days after the A&NI admin issue the Expression of Interest document, which was also posted on social media by the administration itself, the office of the IT Secretary issued a notice on the eve of Independence Day, withdrawing the EoI.

In this notice, the IT Secretary’s office noted that the EoI was being withdrawn “with immediate effect”, giving no reason apart from “administrative reasons” for the withdrawal.

When the EoI was first issued, marking potential areas for exploring the data centre project, particularly in GNI, officials involved with the GNI development project told The Hindu that they had not discussed any such project to be part of the larger project being undertaken for the island.

Further, when the EoI was issued, the Tribal Council of Little and Great Nicobar had also said that they had not been informed of any such plans in their dialogue with administration officials.