MUM 1 at Chandivali is listed by Nxtra by Airtel at 4 MW of IT power across 600 racks — 6.7 kW a rack, and the smallest building in the operator’s Mumbai cluster. Its size is the least interesting thing about it. Chandivali and the adjacent Powai–Vikhroli belt hold one of the densest concentrations of data centre capacity in India, and this building sits inside it, with NTT, Equinix and Digital Connexion facilities within roughly a kilometre. For anyone selling into Mumbai, the address is the account and the building is the entry point.
1At a glance
26.7 kW a rack
Two published numbers, one division. That is all the engineering detail available on this building, and it is enough to place it in the market.
| Facility | IT power | Racks | kW a rack |
|---|---|---|---|
| MUM 1 — Chandivali | 4 MW | 600 | 6.7 |
| MUM 2 — Airoli | 7 MW | 1,100 | 6.4 |
| MUM 3 — Mahape 1 | 18 MW | 1,600 | 11.3 |
| MUM 4 — Mahape 2 | 42 MW | 3,600 | 11.7 |
| Cluster total | 71 MW | 6,900 | 10.3 |
The pattern is the important part. The two older, inner-city sites run at about 6.5 kW a rack. The two newer Mahape halls run at 11 kW and above. That is a 70% increase in power per cabinet between generations, and it is the quiet signal running through the whole Indian market: new halls are being built for denser equipment, and old halls cannot follow without a rebuild.
For a supplier, 6.7 kW a rack at Chandivali means conventional air-cooled colocation. The buying pattern is refresh, efficiency and containment — not liquid cooling. Anyone pitching cold plates here is pitching to the wrong building, which is exactly the mistake a cluster-level sales visit tends to make.
3The densest data centre street in India
Chandivali is unusual in India because the operators are literally within walking distance of each other. That has commercial consequences that no single facility record captures.
| Neighbour | Approximate distance | Scale, as reported |
|---|---|---|
| Digital Connexion Mumbai Chandivali | immediately adjacent | a joint venture campus |
| NTT Chandivali DC 8 | about 0.1 miles | part of a campus intended to reach 250 MW at full build |
| NTT Chandivali DC 5 | about 0.24 miles | 12.5 MW reported |
| NTT Chandivali DC 9 | about 0.27 miles | about 6,000 racks, reported at 62 MW |
| Equinix MB2 | about 0.5 miles | part of the MB1–MB3 campus |
| Equinix MB3 | about 0.6 miles | 5,475 cabinets at full build, opened April 2026 |
The proximity is not an accident and it is not purely competitive. Data centres cluster where the fibre, the substations and the customers are, and Chandivali has been the centre of Mumbai’s colocation market since the first generation of carrier hotels. That means density of networks, a deep pool of data centre engineers, and a mature market in second-hand and refurbished equipment.
It also means four-figure megawatt clusters sharing a constrained grid. Chandivali and Powai are inside the island city, where new transmission capacity is difficult and expensive. That is one reason the growth capital for this industry is moving out to Navi Mumbai, Mahape and Palava, where the land and the substations are.
One site visit to Chandivali reaches Nxtra, NTT, Equinix and Digital Connexion. No other address in India offers that.
The catch is that three of those four are building their new capacity somewhere else.
4The Mumbai cluster
MUM 1 is one of four cards, and the cluster arithmetic is the useful unit for anyone sizing this account.
| Measure | Value | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| Mumbai cluster | 71 MW across 6,900 racks | 4 facilities, two of them hyperscale at Mahape |
| Chennai cluster | 46 MW across four facilities | about two thirds of Mumbai |
| Mumbai as a share of 250 MW national | about 28% | using the annual report figure |
| Chennai as a share of the same | about 18% | the comparison to keep |
| Where the growth capital is going | Mumbai | Airtel has said land acquisition is focused there |
Two conclusions follow. First, Mumbai is the account that matters — 71 MW today against a stated ambition of 1 GW nationally, and the only market where the operator has said it is actively acquiring land. Second, within Mumbai the weight is at Mahape, where 60 of the 71 MW sit across two buildings. Chandivali is the oldest and smallest of the four.
5Timeline
- Chandivali operates as one of Nxtra’s established Mumbai facilities, positioned in the central business corridor rather than the Navi Mumbai industrial belt
- The operator’s Mumbai page lists MUM 1 at 4 MW of IT power and 600 racks, carrier neutral, with no commissioning date
- Airtel describes Nxtra’s capacity as growing from around 120–130 MW to 1 GW, with Mumbai as the focus of land acquisition
- No stage change, no date and no additional detail for this facility in the public record
6Procurement
7Limits and open questions
8Sources
Sources: Nxtra Mumbai data centre page, Nxtra by Airtel site, DataCenterMap Mumbai listings, Baxtel facility records, Airtel FY26 annual report, Data Center Dynamics reporting on NTT and Equinix Chandivali facilities.