Andhra Court Allows Data Centre Construction Amidst Land Row

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has ruled to allow the construction of a proposed hyperscale data centre in Visakhapatnam to proceed. However, this permission is conditional, subject to the final judgment of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that contests the allocation of 160 acres of endowments land. The bench, led by Chief Justice Lisa Gill, heard the PIL filed by Bollisetti Satyanarayana. The petitioner's counsel argued that while not against the data centre itself, the project must meet environmental standards and that statutory provisions for leasing endowments land were potentially overlooked. Concerns were raised about the site's proximity to a wildlife sanctuary and its location within a catchment area.

The state government asserted that environmental clearance was granted on June 10 by the State Environmental Impact Assessment Authority after a thorough review. It was also noted that this clearance had not been directly challenged in the current PIL. The state further argued that the data centre falls under Category B, for which the state authority's clearance is sufficient, and that water requirements would be met through the rural water supply scheme. The developer's counsel cited a Union ministry statement suggesting separate environmental clearance is not mandatory for data centres. The court acknowledged that the ongoing proceedings before the National Green Tribunal regarding environmental clearance would not preclude its examination of the PIL, permitting construction to begin pending the final decision.