Tata Communications to spend ₹4,350 crore on 10,000‑km AI network across India

Tata Communications will invest ₹4,350 crore to build about 10,000 km of AI‑ready connectivity infrastructure across India. The funding comes from operating cash flows and is expected to add roughly 6 petabits per second to the company's existing 1.25 Pbps network, which is currently used at 70‑80% capacity. The first phase will link data‑centre hubs in Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai, a corridor the firm calls a key AI and hyperscale growth route. Later phases will extend the link to emerging clusters on the east and west coasts, including Vizag, Bhubaneswar, Jamnagar and GIFT City. The expanded network will tie major Indian AI and data‑centre sites to international cable landing stations, enabling faster, low‑latency connections for hyperscalers, cloud platforms and multinational enterprises. Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, managing director and CEO of Tata Communications, said the data‑centre‑to‑data‑centre market could grow to exceed $1 billion in the medium term. He added, “With our planned investments, we are building on our existing strengths to create one of the most comprehensive data centre connectivity platforms in the market.” Rupesh Chokshi, executive vice‑president and global business head of Network Services, said AI workloads need networks built for speed, scale and resilience. The capacity boost is slated for implementation between FY2030 and FY2036. According to a PIB release, India holds nearly 20% of the world’s data but only 3% of global data‑centre capacity, with Mumbai/Navi Mumbai accounting for over 25% of the country’s live capacity, Bengaluru and Hyderabad about 22% each, Chennai 13%, Delhi‑NCR 14%, Pune 6% and Kolkata 3%.

Context

India’s data‑centre capacity lags its data generation, so expanding high‑speed, AI‑ready links helps meet growing demand from global cloud providers and local enterprises.