Mangaluru is rapidly emerging as a cost-efficient and strategically positioned data centre hub in India, backed by strong infrastructure, competitive operating economics, and a growing technology ecosystem, according to the Mangaluru Data Centre Feasibility Study 2025.
The study was conducted by the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM) in collaboration with the Silicon Beach Program and Deloitte India, and evaluates Mangaluru’s potential role in supporting India’s expanding digital infrastructure needs across cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and mission-critical workloads.
With India’s total data centre capacity projected to reach 10–12 GW by 2030, the report positions Mangaluru as a strategic “spoke” within a Bengaluru-led hub-and-spoke model, enabling decentralised compute capacity, lower latency services, and improved disaster recovery and business continuity.
A key advantage highlighted in the study is cost efficiency. Land leasing rates in Mangaluru average around ₹7.69 per sq ft per month, offering a four to five times cost advantage over Mumbai and a notable edge over Chennai. Power tariffs range between ₹5.95 and ₹6.60 per kWh, lower than Chennai’s average of about ₹7.50 per kWh and competitive with other major data centre markets.
These factors significantly reduce the total cost of ownership, improve breakeven timelines, and enhance long-term returns, particularly for large-scale and AI-intensive data centre deployments. The study also points to high grid reliability and assured industrial water availability as major strengths.
Commenting on the findings, B. V. Naidu, Chairman, KDEM, said the study confirms that Mangaluru offers the right balance of capability, cost, and resilience to support India’s next phase of digital growth, while complementing Bengaluru’s role as the country’s primary technology hub.
The report identifies strong long-term demand drivers, including rising data consumption, increasing Global Capability Centre (GCC) activity, and growth across BFSI, RegTech, and FinTech sectors. Mangaluru currently ranks among India’s top eight emerging GCC locations.
On infrastructure readiness, the region offers around 1,000 acres at Balkunje and 164 acres within the Mangaluru SEZ for large-scale development. Its location in Seismic Zone III and elevation above sea level help mitigate climate and seismic risks.
The local talent ecosystem further strengthens the case, with the Mangaluru–Udupi belt hosting nearly 25,000 IT professionals and producing over 20,000 STEM graduates annually, supporting long-term scalability for data centre operators.
Follow Startupbydoc for daily startup insights, funding news, IPO analysis, and business breakdowns.