Mangaluru emerges as cost-efficient hub for next-generation data centres: Deloitte–KDEM study
MANGALURU: The Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) and the Silicon Beach Program (SBP), in partnership with Deloitte India, have released the Mangaluru Data Centre Feasibility Study 2025, a strategic assessment commissioned to evaluate Mangaluru’s role in strengthening India’s digital backbone for cloud, artificial intelligence and mission-critical workloads.
Guided by the state’s vision for resilient, sovereign-aligned infrastructure, the study identifies Mangaluru as one of India’s most cost-efficient and scalable coastal destinations for data centre development. The region offers land leasing at Rs 7.69 per sq ft per month, providing a 4–5 times cost advantage over Mumbai and up to a 95 per cent advantage over Chennai, depending on zone and asset class.
This is complemented by energy tariffs in the range of Rs 5.95–6.60 per kWh, which are significantly lower than Chennai’s Rs 7.50 per kWh and outperform most major markets. These factors, combined with high grid reliability and assured industrial water availability, create a strong and scalable foundation for next-generation compute infrastructure.
As India advances towards 10–12 GW of national data centre capacity by 2030, the study positions Mangaluru as a strategic “spoke” within a Bengaluru-led hub-and-spoke architecture. This model is expected to enable decentralised compute and low-latency workloads, while also strengthening disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities.
Announcing the findings, B V Naidu, Chairman of KDEM, said, “Infrastructure is the backbone of digital leadership. This study confirms that Mangaluru offers the right combination of capability, control and cost to support India’s next decade of AI- and cloud-led growth. With industry-leading economics, a resilient grid and a deep talent base, Mangaluru is primed to host mission-critical workloads while complementing Bengaluru’s position as India’s digital nerve centre.”
Rohith Bhat, Lead Industry Anchor for the Mangaluru Cluster at KDEM and Founding Member of the Silicon Beach Program, said, “Mangaluru has quietly assembled all the fundamentals required for a high-capacity, future-ready data centre ecosystem, from coastal geography and grid stability to talent depth and multimodal connectivity. With KDEM’s leadership, the Silicon Beach Program’s ecosystem development and Deloitte’s insights, this study charts a clear roadmap for unlocking 1 GW of sustainable, AI-ready data centre capacity. This aligns directly with Karnataka’s Beyond Bengaluru growth story and our commitment to developing future-ready technology clusters across the state.”