‘Flawed clearances’: Activists target Google-led Vizag data centre projects, seek fresh environmental review

Hyderabad: Even as the Andhra Pradesh government prepares for the foundation-laying ceremony of Google-led hyperscale data centres in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday, environmentalists have raised serious objections.

The concerns are directed at the Environmental Clearances (ECs) recently granted by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) for two hyperscale data centre parks—Vizag Mega Data Center Park Limited in Tarluvada and Vizag Rambilli Data Center Park Limited in Rambilli.

Andhra Pradesh chief minister, N Chandrababu Naidu is scheduled to lay foundation stone for the two data centres on Tuesday.

They are calling the clearances flawed and demanding that both projects be reclassified and subjected to fresh appraisals through full Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs), with statutory public hearings held in all affected villages.

According to Human Rights Forum (HRF) state general secretary, Y Rajesh together, the two projects entail a combined grid demand of 1,626 MW, a backup diesel fleet of approximately 354 generators with a total installed capacity of 971.5 MW, and on-site high-speed diesel storage of 2,520 kilolitres by any reasonable standard, the hallmarks of major industrial installations.

HRS state secretary G Rohit pointed out that by placing these projects under a regulatory category that exempts them from public hearings one intended for ordinary building and construction activity the state government effectively ensured that local communities were neither informed nor consulted.

They argued that this classification is not a mere technicality but the very mechanism through which meaningful scrutiny has been evaded. These data centres, they stressed, are massive, energy- and water-intensive industrial installations with significant land and resource footprints, and must not be treated as benign infrastructure.

“HRF has examined the EC orders, the Environmental Management Plans (EMPs) prepared by M/s Pridhvi Envirotech (P) Limited in both cases, and the State Expert Appraisal committee (SEAC) meeting minutes. What was initially presented as a single Google-led hyperscale AI data center with a capacity of 1 GW (1000 MW) has now taken the form of two separate hyperscale AI data centers, each with a capacity of 1 GW," Rajesh said.

"These comprise a 1 GW data center park at Tarluvada in Visakhapatnam district and another 1 GW park at Rambilli in Anakapalli district, both owned by the Adani Group. It is our considered view that these clearances fall far short of acceptable environmental and regulatory standards. The two filings are not independent assessments but identical, template-based submissions reproduced across projects and approved without meaningful scrutiny. This has reduced the clearance process to a hollow, procedural exercise devoid of substance,” he added.

HRF Andhra and Telangana state coordination committee member, VS Krishna pointed out that both have been filed and cleared under Schedule item 8(a), “Building /Construction Projects”, Category B2 of the EIA Notification 2006. 

“This single act of classification removes, in both cases, the requirement of a full EIA report, the need for Scoping and Terms of Reference, the requirement of a statutory Public Hearing at or near the project site, and any structured opportunity for residents to ask questions, or place their concerns on record. While the legal letter may have been followed, its democratic spirit has been effectively emptied. The record clearly shows that these projects, which are of unprecedented scale, have not been independently or rigorously appraised. Instead, they have been processed through near-identical documentation, assumptions, and conclusions,” said VS Krishna.