UP’s 50% Data-Centre Land Subsidy: What It Covers—and Where Noida Sits

The policy map: four regions, two rates

Appendix 12 of the notified policy divides Uttar Pradesh’s districts into four regions. Bundelkhand and Purvanchal receive the higher rate; Madhyanchal and Paschimanchal receive the lower one. The appendix names 75 districts: 37 in the 50% bands and 38 in the 25% bands.[1]

That places Noida and Greater Noida in the 25% band, not the 50% band. The policy appendix lists Gautam Buddha Nagar under Paschimanchal; the Gridvik Registry’s location records for Noida and Greater Noida use that district designation.[1][8]

What the 50% figure actually covers

The policy does not promise a 50% discount on any private-market plot, nor a cheque to a developer before construction. Clause 7.1.3 ties the subsidy to the prevailing sector rate on land purchased or leased from a State Agency. The defined agencies include Industrial Development Authorities; the UP Housing & Development Board and Development/Special Area Development Authorities under the Housing and Urban Planning Department; and other State institutions notified by the Government.[1]

The policy also allows land support for captive solar plants established with a data centre only where no land subsidy is taken for that land under another Central or State policy. Land reserved for future-scale captive solar expansion is not eligible under the 2026 clause. These are land-use conditions, not a general solar-project subsidy.[1]

Who can qualify—and when can an incentive be claimed?

The 2026 policy separates data-centre parks, units and grouped edge proposals. A proposal must fit one of these categories; captive data-centre units and captive edge centres are excluded. Applicants are distinct legal entities incorporated and registered in India, and the investment proposal is submitted through the Nivesh Mitra portal.[1]

Financial incentives apply only after a Letter of Comfort (LoC) is issued. The LoC is an approval instrument that identifies the project, proposed investment, specified incentives and conditions; it is not a blanket guarantee beyond those stated terms. The policy says an investor may apply for disbursement only after the relevant commercialisation threshold is met. Its defined commencement date is the first valid invoice to an external customer for actual data-centre services—not a ribbon-cutting or a capacity announcement.[1]

Other 2026 incentives: useful, but conditional

The land rate is only one part of the policy. These headline benefits have separate categories, ceilings, durations and qualifying events; the project’s LoC and current implementation rules control the actual claim.[1]

The policy adds conditional Tier III/IV certification-charge reimbursement, AI-compute boosters tied to minimum installed FP64 compute units, and green-operation boosters linked to certification, PUE and renewable-energy share. Edge proposals can receive unit incentives (other than the green-operations booster) and a separate internet-cost reimbursement of 25%, capped at ₹2.5 lakh per edge centre per year for its first three commercial years. These are not automatic add-ons: each has its own evidence requirements and limits.[1]

A cheaper plot is not a ready data-centre site

The policy addresses more than land: for projects in State Agency areas, it requires water availability to be assessed before land allocation and says the agency should ensure 24×7 uninterrupted water supply at applicable charges before the LoC, subject to the stated conditions. Water NOCs, treatment, efficient cooling and wastewater reuse also matter. It provides for 24×7 power supply to parks and units subject to two dedicated feeders being arranged by the park or unit.[1]

Those provisions do not certify that a particular parcel has spare power, water, fibre routes, approvals or commissioning capacity today. Investors should confirm parcel availability and site-specific utility evidence independently; the 50%/25% land band is a price-support rule, not a site-readiness rating.

What can the prior-policy location record prove?

The 2021 policy already used the same broad 25%/50% regional split; the 2026 policy is not the first time Bundelkhand and Purvanchal received the higher land rate.[5] The official Cabinet note of 6 July 2026 says that, under the previous framework, 7 projects had become operational out of 6 data-centre parks and 2 units. UPLC’s policy page separately lists 7 of 8 projects as commercialised and 133 MW in its commercialisation panel.[2][3]

For a narrower, reproducible check, the Gridvik Registry’s 242 published record pages were searched on 1 November 2026 for an Uttar Pradesh/Noida location entry. Five pages matched. Three document an operational or partly operational facility; two are proposal or announcement-stage records. This is a count of Registry pages, not campuses, approvals or the same denominator used by UPLC.[8]

There is also a useful proposal-stage caution. STT GDC India’s 10 February 2023 MoU release describes two proposed parks in Noida/Greater Noida and an additional regional data-centre unit in Lucknow, subject to demand, policy support and techno-commercial viability. That is not evidence of a live Lucknow facility; it shows why a count of signed MoUs or proposals must not be presented as a count of operating sites.[6]

The public evidence reviewed supports a clear policy geography—Noida/Greater Noida are in the 25% band—and a limited set of named Registry examples. It does not supply a complete, dated, address-by-address roster that can be matched one-for-one to UPLC’s commercialisation count.

Targets, proposals and operations are different stages

The 2026 policy aspires to add more than 2 GW of capacity and mobilise more than ₹2 lakh crore in investment. These are forward-looking policy targets over the policy period, not achieved capacity or money already spent.[1]

These figures describe different stages and come from separate official pages. They should not be added, subtracted or relabelled as if they were a single operational series. The 2026 policy’s additional-capacity target is also distinct from the 2021-policy project count and from proposed capacity reported in 2025.[3][4]

Policy dates and the transition from 2021

Once the 2026 policy took effect, the 2021 policy was repealed for new cases. The transition clause preserves admissible old-policy benefits for an entity holding a 2021-policy LoC that has partially or fully availed incentives or concessions, subject to prevailing Government Orders. Where an LoC holder has not met the required operationalisation criteria, the State may consider an extension; the notified text says any such extension cannot exceed three years.[1][2]

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