The Andaman and Nicobar administration has floated an expression of interest (EoI) inviting feasibility proposals for the establishment of a private-sector-led “Green AI/ Data Centre Vertical” on the islands.

The move comes in the midst of opposition from local tribal communities to a proposed ₹91,000-crore mega infrastructure project on the Great Nicobar Island (GNI).

As per the EoI, the potential areas identified for the data centre project are 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 the Great Nicobar Island.

The August 10 EoI comes even as the administration is holding meetings with local tribal communities on the GNI over finalising the draft master plan of the ₹91,000-crore project, which includes a transhipment port and airport. The draft plan was first released to the public earlier this year.

The sea areas identified for the data centre project are along bays 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) under the draft master plan.

Locals unaware

Officials in the administration involved in preparing the draft master plan told The Hindu that they are not aware of any discussions about accommodating such a data centre project as part of the GNI development. Members of the Tribal Council of Great and Little Nicobar who met with the Nicobar administration on Thursday this week to discuss the draft master plan further said they had been given no information about a data centre project on the GNI.

“We only met them for 15 minutes, and they asked us how much buffer area we needed near Rajiv Nagar and New Chingenh settlements. We told them that we need to survey the areas and see, even as the officials said provisions are being made for 30 metre to 100 metre buffer areas around these settlements,” one council member said.

In the EoI, the island administration has noted that the 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 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 on the islands by September 24 this year.

The EoI noted that the government and administration’s role in the data centre initiative will be subject to applicable laws, and will primarily be to facilitate coordination and provide appropriate institutional support on land, power, connectivity, statutory clearances, environmental safeguards, and other “enabling infrastructure”, as may be considered feasible.

The feasibility proposals have been 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, “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.”

Published - August 14, 2026 10:31 pm IST