HC asks Andhra govt to check if Google-Adani data centre has legal, environmental clearances

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday directed the state government to ensure that work on the proposed $15-billion Google-Adani data-centre project in Visakhapatnam is carried out with the required legal and environmental permissions.

“Environmental clearances cannot be given a go by,” the court said, directing authorities to ensure that work at the site is carried out with the necessary permissions.

A bench led by Chief Justice Lisa Gill made the observations after being told that work at the site had already begun.

Petitioner Bolisetty Satyanarayana, who filed the plea challenging the project approvals, sought an interim status quo order. “My request is… interim prayer for the status quo till the time matter is heard,” said Virag Gupta, counsel for Satyanarayana.

The court did not grant the status quo request. It instead directed the state to ensure that work at the site has the required permissions.

The court also asked the government to file a consolidated response from the departments involved in the project's approvals. The matter will be heard next week.

Temple land, green concerns

The plea raises concerns over 160 acres of Simhachalam Devasthanam land, the project's proximity to a protected area, environmental clearances, and water and electricity requirements.

Gupta argued that the environmental clearance covered the construction of the building but not the data-centre operations.

“The environment clearance is only for the building. It’s not for the data centre,” he told the court.

He also argued that the 160 acres of temple land could not be alienated without the High Court's permission, citing an earlier order. Gupta further questioned the approvals granted after Google announced the project, saying Google's name did not appear in the clearances.

“Not even a single page name of the Google has come in the whole, these clearances,” he told the court.

State disputes land claim

The state disputed the petitioner's claim over the temple land. Its counsel said the land had not been transferred but leased by the temple authorities to the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC). The state said the arrangement would give the temple about ₹26 crore a year.

“It is not at all a transfer. It was only a lease given by the temple authorities, by the commissioner, to the APIIC... By virtue of such a lease, the temple is gaining an amount of ₹26 crores and odd per annum,” the state's counsel told the court.

The petitioner also argued that the project site is about 0.86 km from the protected area and could require Category A treatment under environmental rules, bringing it under central-level scrutiny.

Water and electricity requirements were also raised. The petitioner pointed to a nearby reservoir and questioned whether the project's resource requirements had been properly assessed.

The final outcome could have implications for how large data-centre projects are assessed for environmental and regulatory compliance in India.

Queries emailed to the Adani Group and Google India remained unanswered till press time.

$15-billion AI hub

Google announced the Visakhapatnam AI hub in October 2025 with a planned $15-billion investment over five years. It later partnered with Adani Enterprises through AdaniConneX to develop a gigawatt-scale data-centre campus with planned capacity of nearly 1GW. Construction began in April 2026.

Visakhapatnam has emerged as a major destination for data-centre investments. In April, Reliance Industries Ltd was reported to be planning a ₹1.6 trillion (over $17 billion) investment to develop a 1.5GW data-centre cluster in Visakhapatnam, along with dedicated solar power and battery storage facilities, according to a report in The Economic Times.

In September 2025, Andhra Pradesh said it was targeting 6GW of data-centre capacity, supported by investments from companies including Reliance and the Google-Adani partnership. Under its Data Centre Policy 4.0, the state offers incentives, including 100% GST reimbursement on capital goods and a 10% capital subsidy on machinery for eligible projects.