CHE 3, also called Siruseri 2, is listed by Nxtra by Airtel at 16 MW of IT power in Siruseri, Chennai — the second largest of the operator’s four Chennai facilities and about 35% of the 46 MW city portfolio. The card gives a capacity and a name. It does not give a commissioning date, a rack count, a floor area, a customer or any statement of whether the building is live. This is a real facility recorded at the depth the public evidence supports.
1At a glance
216 MW is a third of Chennai
The shape of the portfolio is the useful information here. Nxtra’s Chennai capacity is concentrated in two large buildings in the SIPCOT estate: Siruseri DC 3 at 27 MW and CHE 3 at 16 MW, together 43 MW. The other two, CHE 2 at 4 MW and CHE 1 at 2 MW, are small legacy sites — one in the same estate and one in the city.
That gives a supplier a clear map. Siruseri is where the megawatts are, and therefore where anything involving capacity — cooling, power distribution, UPS, switchgear — will be bought. The city sites matter for connectivity, not for load.
| Test | Result | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Two largest buildings | 43 MW | 93% of the city headline |
| Two smallest buildings | 6 MW | 7% of the city headline |
| CHE 3 alone | 16 MW | 35% of the city headline |
| Racks implied at the portfolio’s 5 kW a rack | about 3,200 | arithmetic, not a published figure |
| Racks implied at 11 kW a rack, the Mumbai new-build rate | about 1,450 | the same megawatts in a much denser hall |
The last two rows are the reason density matters even on a thin record. The same 16 MW is either 3,200 conventional racks or 1,450 dense ones, and the second building costs meaningfully more per megawatt. No published figure settles which this is.
3The 3 MW gap is not this building
The Chennai page reports 46 MW. The four cards sum to 49. The obvious question is whether one building accounts for the difference, and the arithmetic rules that out.
| Facility | Card capacity | Could it be the missing 3 MW? |
|---|---|---|
| CHE 1 — Santhome | 2 MW | No. Too small, and removing it would leave a 1 MW error the other way |
| CHE 2 — Siruseri 1 | 4 MW | No. Too large |
| CHE 3 — Siruseri 2 | 16 MW | No. Far too large |
| Siruseri DC 3 | 27 MW | No. Far too large |
| Conclusion | 3 MW | the difference is partial counting, not an omitted facility |
That is a useful conclusion reached without any additional source. Since no card equals 3 MW, the gap must come from a subset of a single building — for example a commissioned phase counted in the headline but the full design counted on the card, or one card including fit-out capacity the headline excludes. Nxtra does not explain it, and Gridvik does not allocate it.
The practical instruction is the same as for the parent record: for Chennai, use 46 MW as the operator’s headline and 49 MW as the sum of parts. Do not average them, and do not assign the difference to CHE 3 because it happens to be the second largest.
4Timeline
- Nxtra launches a 38 MW hyperscale facility in Chennai, its third large Chennai data centre, described as 270,000 square feet and LEED certified
- Airtel completes the landing of the SEA-ME-WE-6 cable in Chennai, 220 Tb/s of capacity, to be integrated with Nxtra’s Chennai facilities
- CHE 3 / Siruseri 2 appears on the operator’s Chennai page with a 16 MW IT power card. No commissioning or launch announcement has been located for this specific facility
- No stage change, no date and no additional detail in the public record
5Limits and open questions
6Sources
Sources: Nxtra Chennai data centre page, Nxtra by Airtel site, Airtel press release of November 2021, Airtel SEA-ME-WE-6 landing release, Airtel FY26 annual report.