India, Oct. 13 -- The Maharashtra government has approved 12 new data centre projects across the state, taking the number of operational and proposed facilities to 32. The 12 projects, for which letters of intent were recently issued, are largely concentrated in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) except for one coming up in Pune IT hub Hinjewadi.

However, after concerns raised by environmental experts, local residents and legislators on the environmental impact of data centres, the government on Monday also constituted a committee headed by former Atomic Energy Commission chairperson Dr Anil Kakodkar to assess the sector's impact on water, electricity, the environment and local communities. Data centres are resource-intensive in nature...