Bharat Sanchar Nigral Ltd. (BSNL), a state-run Indian telecommunications provider, has launched six data centers in India that will provide colocation, managed hosting and cloud-based services, The Times of India reported.

Dimension Data built the data centers and will operate them for BSNL as part of a partnership. The two organizations will share the profits the data center services business will generate, but details of the revenue-sharing agreement have not been released.

Dimension Data’s India CEO Kiran Bhagwanani told reporters the company expects Rs 100 crore (US$19.4m) in revenue in the first year of the data centers’ operation. “In full capacity, the potential is of Rs 300 crore ($58.1m),” he said.

The data center business already has its first clients. They are three government organizations that have signed up for managed hosting and cloud services, The Times reported.

Kapil Sibal, India’s communications and IT minister, said the public-private initiative would leverage BSNL’s network infrastructure and vacant buildings it owns. The newly launched data centers are located in Mumbai, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Ludhiana and Ghaziabad.

Dimension Data expects the Indian data center market to grow at an annual growth rate of 22%, reaching total value of Rs 6,500 crore ($126m) by 2016.

South Africa-based Dimension data manages network infrastructure worth more than US$12.5bn, according to the company’s website. This network extends across Asia-Australia, the Americas, Europe, Middle East and Africa.

The company has direct presence in 49 countries.