$15-billion project
Andhra IT minister says Google AI data centre in Visakhapatnam does not need Centre's nod
This story was originally published at 16:49 IST on 24 September 2026
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NEW DELHI – The proposed $15-billion Google artificial intelligence data centre in Visakhapatnam does not require clearance from the Centre as approvals for data centres fall within the jurisdiction of states, Andhra Pradesh Information Technology Minister Nara Lokesh said at an event here Thursday. "It's a state subject. State has followed due process," he said.
The minister also addressed concerns about the ecological impact of the project, saying at least 70% of the power will be supplied from renewable sources. "Water is being given from sustainable sources. It will not take water away from farming or from the city," he added.
Lokesh had earlier explained that water from the Polavaram-Banakacherla project will be used to meet the needs of data centres as 3,000 thousand million cubic feet of water flows unused into the Bay of Bengal every year. The state is incentivising data centres to have desalination plants and a particular company has agreed to establish one, he added.
The Andhra Pradesh government has secured agreements for its targeted 6.5 gigawatt of data centre compute capacity and "the projects are getting grounded", the minister said. On the concerns regarding AI replacing jobs, the minister said, "Every industrial revolution will end up creating more jobs than it would replace...So the question in front of us is, is India ready to embrace it? If we're going to resist it, we will be replaced. So as an education minister for human resource development, there's onus on me to transform our entire curriculum, keeping in mind the changes that are happening." End
Reported by Shakshi Jain
Edited by Shubhayan Bhattacharya
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