Bodh Gaya, where Buddha became enlightened, to get $1-billion data centre

CtrlS Datacenters on Tuesday announced it has signed a letter of intent with the Bihar government to invest Rs 10,000 crore ($1.05 billion) to set up a 150 MW hyperscale AI factory in Bodh Gaya as it inaugurated a Rs 400-crore data centre in Patna.

The Patna facility, inaugurated in the presence of Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, currently offers an IT load of 12 MW, which can be expanded based on future demand, the company said in a statement.

"The company has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the Government of Bihar to invest Rs 10,000 crore to set up a 150 MW hyperscale AI factory in Bodh Gaya, in addition to inaugurating its data centre in Patna," it said.

Bodh Gaya is one of Buddhism's most important pilgrimage sites; it is here that the Buddha attained enlightenment, it is said.

Located in the Patliputra Industrial Area, the AI and cloud-ready data centre will serve enterprises, government institutions, hyperscalers and technology businesses in Bihar and eastern India.

The company described the greenfield facility as designed to withstand natural disasters, with military-grade security and energy-efficient operations.

"Together with our ecosystem partners, we are bringing significant investments into Bihar while creating new employment opportunities and contributing to the region's economic growth. The strong market potential and growing demand for digital infrastructure have reinforced our confidence in Bihar," said Sridhar Pinnapureddy, founder and CEO of CtrlS Datacenters.

CtrlS, which began operations in 2007, operates 19 data centres across nine markets in India and plans to build over 4.4 GW of data centre capacity by 2030.

The company plans to set up more than 20 edge data centres in tier-2 and tier-3 cities across India over the coming years, to bring computing and connectivity closer to customers amid rising demand for localised, low-latency digital infrastructure.