CtrlS Hyderabad DC 3 opened on 29 May 2024 at 13 MW of IT load across 130,000 square feet, for more than ₹500 crore, in a ground-plus-five building in the Gachibowli financial district. It was announced in March 2022 at 18 MW and 1,600 racks. The building that opened is 28% smaller than the building that was promised, which is ordinary, and the operator’s current card lists it at 3,500 racks, which is not.
1At a glance
2Announced at 18, opened at 13
The building was described on the way up and described again on the way in. The two descriptions do not match, and the gap is the kind of thing that happens between an announcement and a costed design.
| When | Capacity | Racks | Density | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 2022, groundbreaking | 18 MW | 1,600 | 11.3 kW | electricity, per the release |
| April 2024, pre-launch | 13 MW | not stated | — | IT load |
| 29 May 2024, launch | 13 MW | about 1,300 | 10.0 kW | IT load |
| Current operator card | 13 MW | 3,500 | 3.7 kW | IT load |
Eighteen megawatts to thirteen is a 28% reduction, and it happened after the groundbreaking ceremony. That is not unusual: a 2022 announcement is made against a grid sanction, and a 2024 launch is made against an installed plant. What is unusual is that the rack count then went up by 2.7 times after the building opened.
The consistent figure across the launch and the card is 13 MW of IT load and the consistent floor area is 130,000 to 134,000 square feet. Everything else moved.
3The rack count that does not fit
Three thousand five hundred racks in 130,000 square feet is 26.9 cabinets per thousand square feet. At 13 MW that is 3.7 kW a rack. Neither number is impossible in the abstract, and both are improbable in this building.
| Test | The arithmetic | What it implies |
|---|---|---|
| Floor area per rack | 37 square feet a rack, on the card | a dense, high-rise layout with almost no aisle or whitespace |
| Density at 3,500 racks | 3.7 kW a rack | lower than the company’s 2008 building, in a 2024 facility described as AI-ready |
| Density at 1,300 racks | 10.0 kW a rack | consistent with a modern G+5 hall and with the ₹500 crore cost |
| Cost per rack | ₹14.3 lakh a rack at 3,500; ₹38.5 lakh at 1,300 | the second is a normal figure for a Rated-4 hall; the first would be unusually cheap |
| Launch descriptor | “approximately 1,300 racks” | stated in the operator’s own press release in May 2024 |
One further fact deserves stating plainly and without inference. 3,500 racks across 130,000 square feet is the exact footprint a directory publishes for a different operator’s Hyderabad building. That may be coincidence, or a template, or a field filled from the wrong row. Gridvik does not know, and does not accuse.
What it does do is refuse to compute from a number it cannot support. Every density figure on this site for this building is shown twice, once on 1,300 racks and once on 3,500, because a vendor sizing a cooling job for a 3,500-rack hall and a customer sizing a 1,300-rack requirement are two different conversations.
Quote 13 MW and 130,000 square feet without hesitation. Both are stated by the operator at launch and on the card.
Quote the rack count with the range attached. The card says 3,500; the building that opened was described as about 1,300.
4₹500 crore and 38.5 crore a megawatt
| Basis | Arithmetic | ₹ crore per MW |
|---|---|---|
| Against the launched capacity | ₹500 crore ÷ 13 MW | 38.5 |
| Against the announced capacity | ₹500 crore ÷ 18 MW | 27.8 |
| CtrlS Patna, for comparison | ₹400 crore ÷ 11.6 MW | 34.5 |
| CtrlS Kolkata, the operator’s own quote | stated | 35.0 |
| CtrlS Kolkata campus, as announced | ₹2,200 crore ÷ 60 MW | 36.7 |
| This registry’s AI-campus band | other operators | 52 to 70 |
At ₹38.5 crore a megawatt this is the most expensive of the four CtrlS buildings priced in this registry, and still 45% below the AI-campus band. Everything about the building is consistent: a financial-district location, a Rated-4 standard, a five-storey structure on expensive land, and a speed that was itself a cost — the company said the facility launched just over a month after it was publicly unveiled, against an initial three-month estimate.
That speed is the useful competitive fact. A five-storey, 130,000 square foot data centre delivered from announcement to inauguration in about a month is not a construction achievement; it is a building that was already nearly finished when it was announced. For anyone tracking the Indian pipeline, it is a reminder that announcement dates are marketing events and the real timeline starts at the land purchase.
5Timeline
- Ceremonial groundbreaking at Gachibowli: 131,000 square feet, 1,600 racks, 18 MW
- The facility is publicly unveiled at 13 MW of IT load across 1.34 lakh square feet, due in two to three months
- DC 3 is launched at 13 MW and approximately 1,300 racks, for more than ₹500 crore, inaugurated by the managing director of the Bombay Stock Exchange
- The operator’s card lists 13 MW, 130,000 square feet and 3,500 racks
- No published explanation of the difference between 1,300 and 3,500 racks, and no PUE for the building
6Procurement
7Limits and open questions
8Sources
Sources: CtrlS press release on the launch of Hyderabad DC 3, CtrlS Hyderabad data centre page, CtrlS corporate site, Data Center Dynamics on the 2022 groundbreaking and the 2024 launch, w.media, Data Centre and Network News, TelecomTalk, Baxtel Hyderabad listings, PeeringDB, datacenterlocations.