Techno Electric, an Indian power infrastructure firm, has launched Techno Digital, a wholly owned subsidiary specializing in data centers.

This will be Techno’s first foray into the data center business.

$1bn has been invested in the subsidiary, which will be used to establish 250MW of capacity across India over five years. According to the Economic Times of India, Techno had been planning the move since 2021.

Padam Prakash Gupta, managing director of Techno Electric, said: “India’s data economy is poised for exponential growth, and with our legacy in power infrastructure and EPC, we see ourselves as natural enablers of this transformation.”

Techno’s first data center will be built at Sipcot IT Park, Siruseri, which is located south of Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu. The park is also home to Sify Technologies’ data center campus, the first phase of which became operational in April.

The facility is projected to be around 250,000 sq ft (23,000 sqm) with 2,400 racks and 36MW of capacity. It will use adiabatic cooling and offer a PUE of 1.35.

Techno Digital’s website states that the facility will launch in 2025 Q1.

A facility in Kolkata, offering 20MW of capacity, is set to launch in 2027. Another data center in Noida is in the pipeline.

Last September, Techno won a contract with RailTel, a state-operated telecoms firm, to develop Edge data centers in 102 cities across 23 Indian states. Techno’s website states that these will be built between 2025 and 2029.

Techno Electric specializes in power transmission and distribution, but it also has operations in Flue Gas Desulphurisation and metering infrastructure.

RailTel was formed in 2000 to modernize India’s communication infrastructure. It owns fiber along India’s rail networks, which run more than 60,000 route kilometers and cover more than 6,000 railway stations nationwide.