A proposed data centre in Thane’s Balkum area has drawn opposition from local residents, with Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray writing to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis to seek answers on the project’s location, resource use and safety implications.
Thackeray said on Saturday that residents had taken a firm position against an artificial intelligence data centre being developed in the middle of a residential area. He said he had raised the matter with the chief minister after questions concerning energy consumption, noise pollution, heat emissions and safety remained unanswered.
“Local residents are questioning the location of this project and have taken a firm stand that an AI data centre must not be allowed under any circumstances in the middle of a residential area,” Thackeray said in a post on X, according to a PTI report.
The proposed facility is located in Balkum, an area of Thane that has seen extensive residential development. The immediate dispute centres on whether a large, energy-intensive digital infrastructure project is compatible with a neighbourhood planned and experienced primarily as a residential zone. The report does not provide the project’s capacity, expected power demand, water requirement, construction timeline or environmental approval details.
Thackeray questioned the policy basis under which the builder was permitted to propose the facility at its current location. He also asked why the project could not be shifted to an industrial area under the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation designated for Red Category industries.
“Under which policy was the builder permitted to bring this data centre to this location?” Thackeray asked, while also questioning whether the government would respond to residents’ concerns or continue to support the builder. His statement alleged that the project could intensify Thane’s existing water problems, although the report does not include an official assessment of the facility’s anticipated water consumption or its impact on municipal supply.
Data centres require substantial electricity for computing equipment and cooling systems, making their siting a growing urban-planning issue as cities attract digital infrastructure. In a densely developing city such as Thane, the central administrative question is whether infrastructure approvals, land-use permissions and utility planning have been assessed together before construction proceeds.
The reported opposition also places the project within Thane’s wider political context. Thane is the political base of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and has remained an area of rivalry between the Shinde and Thackeray factions since their split in 2022. Thackeray’s intervention gives the local dispute a wider political profile, but the available report does not state whether the chief minister’s office, Thane civic authorities, the developer or MIDC has issued a response.
The next formal step is the state government’s response to Thackeray’s letter and the residents’ concerns. Details on approvals, land-use permissions, utility demand, safety assessments and the project’s implementation status remain undisclosed in the supplied report.
