BLR 2 at Hoskote is listed by Nxtra by Airtel at 14 MW of IT power across 2,800 racks — 5 kW a rack, with a declared PUE below 1.55. What makes this building more interesting than its size is where it is. In April 2026 Karnataka announced three sustainable data parks totalling 1,000 MW, including 500 MW near Hoskote, with solar power supplied directly from the Pavagada park and 60 million litres a day of secondary treated water from the Bengaluru water board. The operator already had 20 MW in that corridor before the policy existed.
1At a glance
25 kW a rack
This building sits almost exactly in the middle of the Indian density range, which makes it the most quotable facility in the registry.
| Reference | kW a rack | Era |
|---|---|---|
| Nxtra BLR 2, this building | 5.0 | current mid-market standard |
| Nxtra BLR 1, Whitefield | 2.7 | first generation |
| Nxtra DC2, Bengaluru | 5.0 | same specification as this one |
| Nxtra MUM 4, Mahape | 11.7 | designed for accelerated computing |
| TCS HyperVault, claimed | above 170 | AI hall design |
The published PUE of below 1.55 is worth noting next to the density. A 5 kW cabinet hall can be cooled efficiently and that shows in the number; the same operator’s 11.7 kW halls also declare 1.55. At this density, a PUE of 1.55 on 14 MW means roughly 7.7 MW of facility overhead — cooling, losses and everything else that is not the customer’s load.
Those two numbers together — 14 MW of IT and about 21.7 MW of facility load — are what a developer actually builds and what a utility actually connects. Any permit application, substation request or power purchase agreement for this site is sized on the second figure, not the first.
IT load is what customers pay for. Facility load is what the grid supplies. At a PUE of 1.55 the difference is 55%.
When a state announces megawatts for a data park, it rarely says which of the two it means. In Hoskote’s case, the 500 MW has not been defined at all.
3Hoskote: the state’s chosen corridor
Karnataka made a decision in 2026 that will shape Bengaluru’s data centre map for a decade, and Hoskote is at the centre of it.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| What was announced | Three “sustainable” data parks with a combined capacity of 1,000 MW |
| The Bengaluru park | 500 MW near Hoskote |
| Power | Solar generated at the Pavagada solar park supplied directly to the facility |
| Water | The Bengaluru Water Supply and Sewerage Board indicated it can supply 60 million litres a day of secondary treated water, with industries doing tertiary treatment |
| Other parks | 350 acres identified at Baikampady in Mangaluru; land to be identified in Mysuru |
| Who announced it | A ministerial meeting attended by the energy, industries and IT-BT ministers |
| What was not announced | Land for the Bengaluru park, a developer, a timeline, or a definition of what the 500 MW measures |
Six months later the state converted the announcement into policy: a Sustainable Data Centre Policy for 2026–31, approved in September 2026, targeting 1 GW of cumulative IT capacity by 2031, with a stated ambition of 10 to 12% of India’s AI-ready capacity and a budget framework of ₹1,300.45 crore. Land is offered on a 30 plus 30 year lease, with dual-grid connectivity and assured water.
Two details in the state’s own numbers are worth keeping. Officials put the investment required at about ₹70 crore per megawatt — which is precisely the top of the build band used throughout this registry, from a government source rather than an estimate. And the state counts its current installed capacity at about 400 MW across 32 data centres.
4What the park offers
For an operator, the value of a policy-supported park is not the land. It is the three things that actually delay Indian data centres: power, water and permits.
| Constraint | Why it kills projects | What the state has offered |
|---|---|---|
| Power | A 100 MW hall needs a transmission-level connection and years of queueing | Solar from Pavagada supplied directly, plus dual-grid connectivity proposed in the policy |
| Water | Evaporative cooling on a large campus can consume millions of litres a day, and Bengaluru has no surplus | 60 MLD of secondary treated water indicated, with tertiary treatment by the operator |
| Permits | Land conversion, environmental clearance and utility approvals run in series | Land on a 30 plus 30 year lease, single-window support and efficiency-linked incentives |
The water number deserves a sense of scale. Sixty million litres a day is 60,000 cubic metres. A well-run Indian campus using evaporative cooling consumes roughly 2 to 3 litres of water per kilowatt hour of IT load; at 500 MW of load running at 70%, that is around 20 to 30 million litres a day — inside the 60 MLD offered, but not with much room for a second park drawing on the same supply.
That is why non-evaporative cooling designs have started appearing in Indian projects, including at AdaniConneX’s Taloja campus for CoreWeave. Water availability is beginning to determine the cooling architecture, and in Hoskote it will determine how much of the 500 MW can actually be built.
5Timeline
- Hoskote becomes Nxtra’s second Bengaluru location, with two buildings developed east of Whitefield on the highway towards Kolar
- Karnataka announces three sustainable data parks totalling 1,000 MW, including 500 MW near Hoskote with solar from Pavagada and 60 MLD of treated water
- The operator’s Bengaluru page lists BLR 2 at 14 MW of IT power across 2,800 racks with a declared PUE below 1.55, and BLR 3 alongside it at 6 MW
- Karnataka approves its Sustainable Data Centre Policy for 2026–31: 1 GW of IT capacity by 2031, ₹1,300.45 crore framework, land on a 30 plus 30 year lease
- No land, developer or timeline has been announced for the 500 MW Hoskote park, and no link between the park and this building has been stated
6Procurement
7Limits and open questions
8Sources
Sources: Nxtra Bengaluru data centre page, Nxtra by Airtel site, DataCenterMap Bangalore listings, DataCenterHawk, Karnataka government data park announcement, Economic Times, Moneycontrol, ETDatacenters, Deccan Herald, New Indian Express, Indian Express, Medianama on the Karnataka policy.