'How Can Andhra Provide Millions Of Gallons A Day When Local Reservoirs Barely Suffice?': Ex-IAS Officer Flags Environmental Violations in Google's Vizag Data Centre Project

Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and his son Nara Lokesh celebrated Visakhapatnam's emergence as a data hub following the foundation stone laying for a Google AI data centre. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian also lauded the commencement of the groundbreaking work at Vizag. Hoever, a senior retired bureaucrat has called out on the repurcussions of building such a large data center, and aimed it straight at the Environment Ministry in New Delhi.

EAS Sarma, a former IAS officer who served as Secretary to the Government of India in the Union Ministry of Energy, has written to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), urging it to revoke environmental clearances (ECs) granted to two data centre projects in Andhra Pradesh. He alleged that the approvals were issued in violation of statutory environmental norms and under political pressure.

"Even in the US, a city rejected Google's data centre over water and energy concerns. How can Andhra Pradesh provide 2.7 to 4.1 million gallons of water a day for a single 1-GW data centre when local reservoirs are barely sufficient for residents and industries?" Sarma asked, according to local news media Great Andhra.

Clearances granted in 'hurried, piecemeal' manner

According to Sarma, the Andhra Pradesh State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (APSEIAA) "hurriedly" granted ECs to Vizag Mega Data Center Park Ltd and Vizag Rambilli Data Center Park Ltd by incorrectly classifying them as Category B projects. He claimed that both projects are part of a larger data centre ecosystem being developed near Visakhapatnam by Google, through its subsidiary Raiden, in partnership with the Adani Group.

The land has been allotted in the name of three Special Purpose Vehicles fully owned by Adani Infra (India) Limited, Vizag Hyperscale Data Center Park Limited (in Adavivaram and Mudasarlova, Visakhapatnam district), Vizag Mega Data Center Park Limited (in Tarluvada village, Visakhapatnam district), and Vizag Rambilli Data Center Park Limited (in Rambilli village, Anakapalli district). The projects are spread across more than 600 acres.

Sarma alleged that instead of conducting a comprehensive environmental impact assessment for the entire project, APSEIAA divided it into smaller components and granted approvals separately, a move he described as 'piecemeal' to bypass the stricter evaluation norms applicable to large-scale Category A projects under the EIA Notification, 2006.

Sarma also raised alarms about cumulative strain on Visakhapatnam's already stretched water resources, warning that multiple data centres drawing from common water sources could worsen scarcity. He pointed to Central Ground Water Board findings showing that groundwater in the Rambilli area is already critically polluted, a fact he alleged the environmental impact assessment report failed to adequately address.

The Andhra Pradesh government has announced major land, water, electricity and tax subsidies for the Google-Adani AI data centre. The Union government's Budget 2026 also announced a tax holiday till 2047 for foreign cloud service providers operating through India-based data centre infrastructure.