Patna Edge DC 2 opened on 13 October 2026. The operator’s card says 11.6 MW of IT load across 1,670 racks — 7.2 kW a rack — the inauguration release said 12 MW, and the 2024 announcement said 10 MW across about 1,000 racks. Read the three in sequence and one fact survives: the racks grew 67% while the power grew 16%. That is the same pattern this registry found in Nxtra’s Pune campus, in a different company, a different state and a different year — and it is how Indian colocation adds sellable units without adding electricity.
1At a glance
2The building that opened in October
Bihar’s first AI-ready data centre opened on 13 October 2026, and it opened next door to the only other commercial data centre in the state.
| Measure | Edge DC 1 | Edge DC 2 | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| IT load | 0.5 MW | 11.6 MW | 12.1 MW |
| Racks | 109 | 1,670 | 1,779 |
| Density | 4.6 kW | 7.2 kW | 6.8 kW |
| Opened | earlier | 13 Oct 2026 | — |
| Distance apart | — | about 300 m | — |
| Share of Bihar’s counted capacity | 4% | 96% | 100% |
Twelve megawatts is not a national event. In Bihar it is the whole industry. The state’s chief minister used the opening to set a target of 1,000 MW of data centre capacity in five years — a target that is 83 times the capacity that was being inaugurated when he said it.
That gap is the honest measure of where eastern India sits. It is also the reason a facility-level registry is worth more here than a market report: nobody needs a forecast to know Bihar has 12.1 MW. They need to know it is 12.1 and not 150.
3Three capacities, one building
The same building has been described three ways in two years, and the differences are not rounding.
| When | Statement | Racks | Implied density |
|---|---|---|---|
| August 2024 | ₹400 crore, 10 MW of IT load, about 1,000 racks | 1,000 | 10.0 kW |
| Operator’s page, 2026 | 11.6 MW of IT load, 1,670 racks | 1,670 | 6.9 kW |
| 13 October 2026 | Inaugurated with 12 MW of IT load, expandable | not stated | — |
Take the two ends. Between the 2024 plan and the 2026 card, the megawatts rose 16% and the racks rose 67%. Either the operator changed the product it intends to sell, or the 2024 rack figure was an estimate for a differently configured building. Both are ordinary, and the effect is the same: the same electricity now earns rent on 670 more cabinets.
At 10 kW a rack the building would have been at the dense end of the Indian market. At 7.2 kW it is a general-purpose hall that can take a modest accelerated workload but is built for enterprises. Which one it actually is decides whether this is an AI facility or a government-and-bank facility.
Nxtra’s Pune campus: 21 MW across 2,200 racks in 2021, 21 MW across 5,000 racks in 2026.
CtrlS’s Patna building: 10 MW across 1,000 racks in 2024, 11.6 MW across 1,670 racks in 2026.
Two operators, two states, no shared ownership. Power flat, cabinets up, density down. This is what the market is actually buying.
4What ₹400 crore does and does not include
| Item | Value | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Reported investment | ₹400 crore | from the August 2024 land announcement, repeated at the opening |
| Capacity | 11.6 to 12 MW | use the card |
| Implied cost | about ₹33 to 35 crore a megawatt | Gridvik arithmetic |
| CtrlS’s own Kolkata figure | ₹35 crore a megawatt | the colocation president, on the record in June 2024 |
| Comparable new-build band in this registry | ₹52 to ₹70 crore a megawatt | shells, excluding land in most cases |
| Land | acquired through the state industrial authority | so land cost is not in the market comparison |
Two independent CtrlS numbers landing at ₹33–35 crore a megawatt is more than coincidence; it is a company pricing its own construction. It sits well below the ₹52–70 crore band this registry has built from other operators’ disclosures, and there are three ordinary reasons: land from a state authority, a specification built for enterprises rather than for accelerators, and an investment figure that may exclude fit-out.
That gap is not an accusation. It is the most useful pricing intelligence in the file for anyone selling into eastern India: this operator builds at roughly half the per-megawatt cost of the operators building AI campuses, because it is not building the same thing.
5Timeline
- CtrlS acquires a plot through the Bihar industrial area development authority, 300 metres from its existing site, and announces ₹400 crore, 10 MW and about 1,000 racks
- The operator’s portfolio page lists Patna Edge DC 2 at 11.6 MW and 1,670 racks
- The building is inaugurated at a stated 12 MW of IT load; a ₹10,000 crore, 150 MW Bodh Gaya AI factory is announced as a letter of intent at the same event
- The chief minister sets a target of 1,000 MW of data centre capacity in Bihar over five years
- No PUE, occupancy or customer disclosure for the new building
6Procurement
7Limits and open questions
8Sources
Sources: CtrlS Datacenters Patna data centre page, CtrlS corporate site and blogs, Data Center Dynamics on the Patna land acquisition, The Hindu BusinessLine on the ₹10,000 crore Bihar announcement, Times of India and Reuters on the October 2026 inauguration, PeeringDB facility register, DataCenterMap Patna listings.