ESR Rabale MU1 Data Centre will support a facility load of up to 60 megawatts (Image: ESR)
Asian industrial giant ESR on Wednesday announced its entry into India’s data centre market with a Mumbai project representing a total investment of INR 9 billion ($100 million).
The future facility in Navi Mumbai’s Rabale area has been pre-leased to a major information and communications technology company, Singapore-based ESR said Wednesday in a release. The hyperscale-ready ESR Rabale MU1 Data Centre is designed to support a facility load of up to 60 megawatts, enabling continued growth in cloud computing, AI and enterprise workloads.
ESR co-founder and co-CEO Stuart Gibson described the project as a key step in advancing the developer and fund manager’s pan-APAC data centre pipeline of more than 3 gigawatts of secured power and land.
“India is one of the most compelling data centre growth markets globally, driven by rapid digital adoption, data localisation requirements, and the rise of cloud and AI workloads,” Gibson said. “The market is also supported by the country’s continued investments in power grid transformation and the abundance of renewable energy available at competitive prices.”
Critical Node
Located in the Airoli-Rabale data centre cluster, a core availability zone for Mumbai’s cloud region, MU1 will function as a critical node along the key enterprise and technology corridors that support India’s digital economy, according to ESR.
ESR co-founder and co-CEO Stuart Gibson
ESR India CEO Abhijit Malkani said the group’s maiden entry into India’s data centre sector is grounded in disciplined site selection, deep infrastructure readiness and an execution‑focused development approach.
“MU1 is a landmark project for us, combining scale, connectivity and power security in one of Mumbai’s most established data centre clusters,” Malkani said. “As digital demand continues to surge, we are well‑placed to build high‑quality data centre hubs across the country, supported by our APAC experience, strong capital partnerships and integrated development platform.”
India’s data centre market added 387MW of IT capacity across major cities in 2025, according to Savills’ Market Watch report. The figure is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of 23 percent to reach 4GW by 2030, the consultancy said.
The market saw absorption of 427MW capacity last year, primarily driven by hyperscalers, led by Mumbai with 49 percent and Chennai with 20 percent, Savills said.
Regional Expansion
ESR is extending its digital infrastructure footprint into the world’s most populous country after entering South Korea’s data centre market late last year.
In November, ESR and Princeton Digital Group unveiled a 48MW data centre project in Incheon with a total investment of $700 million. The initiative marks the first Korean data centre development for both of the Warburg Pincus-backed firms.
The Incheon announcement came one month after ESR and London-based Colt Data Centre Services set up a joint venture to develop the first phase of a 130MW hyperscale campus in suburban Osaka.
The project adds to ESR’s presence in Japan’s second city after the completion of the 25MW first phase of the group’s maiden data centre campus in the country, the 130MW Cosmosquare in Osaka’s seaside Nanko Kita precinct.
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