BJP leader leads protest against Amazon data centre in Thane over water, power concerns

The Story in Brief

A protest led by BJP and RSS activist Dayanand Nene on July 18 in Thane has stalled Amazon Web Services’ planned hyperscale data centre over concerns about water and power usage. Residents under the banner Wake Up Thanekar claim the facility would consume 1.25 lakh litres of water daily, enough for nearly one lakh people, and 420 MW of power, worsening existing power cuts in suburbs like Dombivli. Amazon has countered that its data centres do not use water for cooling and that the approved water permit is only 10,000 litres per day for employee use. The company also rejects drawing power from local distribution, but has not disclosed its power source. The project sits in a residential area near five schools and three hospitals, heightening opposition from locals who say they were initially misled into thinking it would be like a call centre.