Where is Amazon's 22-hectare data center in India?

It is in Thane, a city next to Mumbai in Maharashtra, at Balkum and Majiwada. The site is about 22 hectares, which is roughly 54 acres. Indian reports describe the plot as 53 to 54 acres.

Why are residents protesting the Amazon data center in Thane?

Residents cite water use, electricity demand, continuous noise, tree felling and a lack of consultation. PTI reports protesters claimed the site would need at least 12 million litres of water a day. Amazon says the site will not use water for cooling and will not draw power from the local grid.

What has Amazon said in response?

Amazon told PTI the facility will take power through its own high-voltage substation, will not use community drinking water for cooling, and cut trees under a valid permit while planting native trees. It told Reuters the site will use water-free cooling, a dedicated power supply separate from homes, and noise mitigation.

Is the claim of 12 million litres of water a day confirmed?

No. It is a claim made by protesters, as reported by PTI. Amazon says it does not use water for cooling in its Indian data centers. No independent measurement of this site's water use exists, because the facility is not yet operating.

Is the project stopped?

We found no report of a stop order. An MP has demanded a stay and an independent review of permissions, and Amazon says it holds valid permits and environmental clearances. Construction and tree felling have been reported at the site.

Amazon Thane Data Center Protests: 54 Acres Near Mumbai | explainx.ai Blog

A planned Amazon data center in Thane, a city next to Mumbai, has set off one of India's first large street protests against AI infrastructure. Reuters reported on October 9, 2026 that more than 1,000 nearby residents say the project was pushed through without meaningful consultation. The site covers about 22 hectares, which is about 54 acres. Residents point to water, electricity and noise. Amazon says it has built safeguards into the design.

This post sets out the location, the protesters' claims, Amazon's answers, and what nobody can yet prove. It also places the dispute inside the wider data center backlash that explainx.ai has tracked in the United States.

TL;DR: the dispute in one table

table · 3 cols

Question	Answer	Source
Where?	Balkum and Majiwada, Thane, next to Mumbai, Maharashtra	PTI via The Federal; Data Center Dynamics (search listing)
How big?	About 22 hectares (53 to 54 acres)	Reuters via Inside AI; PTI
Who is protesting?	Residents of Balkum, Kolshet and Dhokali; group "Wake Up Thanekar"; 1,000+ residents per Reuters	PTI; Reuters
Main claims	Water, electricity, noise, trees, no consultation	PTI; Reuters
Amazon's answer	Water-free cooling, dedicated substation, noise controls, native trees planted	Amazon statements via PTI and Reuters
Proven at this site?	No. The facility is not yet operating	explainx.ai assessment

What happened, in order

July 8, 2026. The Free Press Journal reports that Amazon rejected allegations made by Thane MP Naresh Mhaske. He had asked for construction to stop, citing citizen protests and tree felling beyond civic permissions. Amazon said felling followed a valid Thane Municipal Corporation permit and that its environmental clearances are on the government's PARIVESH portal.

July 18, 2026. PTI reports that several hundred people protested in the Balkum area. They were mostly residents of Balkum, Kolshet and Dhokali. PTI says a delegation under the banner "Wake Up Thanekar" had met the Thane municipal commissioner and Amazon representatives earlier that week, and called the meeting unsatisfactory.

September 8, 2026. Reuters, as summarized by Inside AI, reports that hundreds of residents, including elderly people, gathered beside the site with placards reading "Data centres are energy vampires." Reuters says they want the project moved elsewhere.

October 9, 2026. Reuters publishes its investigation, based on interviews with more than two dozen residents and a review of official correspondence.

Note on dates: an aggregator headline says the march was "last month." The two protests we can source are July 18 (PTI) and September 8 (Reuters).

The protesters' concerns

Water

A water droplet above a cooling basin, representing the water use residents fear from the Amazon Thane data center

PTI reports that protesters claimed the plant will need at least 12 million litres of water every day. This is a protester claim. We found no official figure for the site's water demand.

The worry sits against a national backdrop. Reuters reported in June 2026 that India has 18 percent of the world's people but only 4 percent of its freshwater, and that summer shortages and rationing were severe, with Mumbai down to about 40 days of water by authorities' account. S&P Global estimates, cited by Reuters through Inside AI, that 60 to 80 percent of Indian data centers could face high water stress this decade. Mordor Intelligence estimates the sector used about 150 billion litres in 2025. These are sector-wide estimates. They do not tell us what this site will use.

Electricity

A large plug approaching a wall with a spark, standing for the grid demand concerns around the Thane data center

PTI says protesters described a need for "unlimited electricity." Residents of nearby housing societies also fear grid failures, according to the Free Press Journal. Amazon says the site will not draw or divert power from the local grid that serves homes and businesses. Instead it will connect through its own dedicated high-voltage substation, planned with the utility.

Noise, health and location

Rounded building with sound rings and a dampener, showing the noise residents fear from a data center beside homes

PTI reports that protesters say the facility would make continuous noise and pose a health risk. They say large residential complexes, five schools and three hospitals, including a children's hospital, lie within one kilometre. Reuters quotes a 62-year-old resident, Vasudha Shetty, who bought a flat nearby: "If the data centre stops, we will stay ... If it goes ahead, we will move."

Even some industry figures question the siting. Sharad Agarwal, CEO of Sify Infinit Spaces, which runs 14 data centers, said at an industry event in September, as quoted by Reuters: "I will never set up a data centre in a residential area."

Trees and consultation

Trees have been cleared at the site, per Reuters. Amazon says it is planting native trees, and told Reuters it has planted more saplings than it removed. Residents say they never had a chance to be consulted. Reuters notes that in Virginia, Amazon paused a 2024 proposal for three data centers over noise and proximity concerns, saying it wanted more time for community engagement.

What Amazon says

Amazon's statements, as reported by PTI and Reuters:

The facility "will not draw or divert power from the local distribution grid that serves residential and commercial consumers," but will use its own dedicated high-voltage substation.
"Amazon does not currently use water for cooling in its data centers in India, including our Thane site, and we do not draw from the community's drinking or potable water for cooling purposes."
Tree felling complies with the law under a valid permit, and native trees are being planted.
Amazon told Reuters the site will use water-free cooling and noise-mitigation measures.

Amazon also says it became "water positive" in India in 2026, returning more water to communities than it uses across its operations. Arab News, carrying Reuters, reported this in June. Amazon has a goal of being water positive for its data centers worldwide by 2030.

Reuters also quotes a person familiar with Amazon's planning who said government officials have indicated the protests will pass, and that the company is drawing up community outreach plans on noise, water and power. That is one unnamed source. Treat it as reported, not confirmed.

Where governments stand

The Reuters report, via Inside AI, says Amazon and local authorities have defended the project. The Indian federal IT ministry, the Prime Minister's Office and the Maharashtra chief minister's office did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. The central government has promoted data centers online as "the invisible engines powering India's digital life."

Politics has entered the dispute. Thane MP Naresh Mhaske, of the Shiv Sena, asked the municipal commissioner for a stay, an independent expert review of all permissions, a public hearing and a joint meeting with residents (PTI). A report via Superpower Daily adds that opposition legislator Aaditya Thackeray joined a protest and said his party would relocate the project if returned to power. We could not confirm that claim in a primary Indian source, so treat it as reported.

Money and scale

Reuters, via Inside AI, says the Thane site is part of Amazon's planned $21 billion investment in Indian AI infrastructure by 2030. Reuters separately reported in June that Amazon plans to invest more than $35 billion in India by 2030 across its business, and that AWS plans about $8.2 billion in Maharashtra, according to the IT ministry. These are different figures with different scopes. We do not add them together.

How this fits the wider data center backlash

The Thane fight follows the same script as the American backlash that explainx.ai has covered:

Our map of the AI data center backlash separates real blocks from routine delays across US protests.
San Francisco's data center moratorium shows a city using a pause to study energy, water and air impacts.
Hochul and AOC on a New York moratorium covers a state-level fight over a farm site.
Data centers, water and lawsuits in Imperial Valley covers an earlier Amazon water dispute.
Virginia's data center power tax shows how power costs reach ratepayers.

The differences matter. In India the siting is close to dense housing, and water scarcity is acute in a way few US sites match. The similarity is the pattern: residents say they were not consulted, the company points to technical safeguards, and nobody can test those safeguards until the building runs.

What to watch

Official water and power numbers. A published water balance and substation plan would turn promises into checkable facts.
Permits and reviews. Whether Thane or Maharashtra authorities order the independent review the MP asked for.
Amazon's outreach. Whether the promised community plans appear, and whether they change the design or the site.
Operating data. After commissioning, noise and power readings will show whether the safeguards work.
Copycat protests. Similar campaigns are reported against a Google-Adani complex in Visakhapatnam, according to a search summary of Indian coverage that we could not read in full.

What this means for builders

AI demand is turning compute into a local land-use question. Teams that depend on cloud regions should expect siting delays, extra permits and rising costs for power and water, as we noted in our look at the AWS Capacity Blocks GPU price hike. It is a supply risk, not only a news story.

Honest limitations

We could not read The Hindu, Hindustan Times or Indian Express reports in full, or the original Reuters article. We relied on PTI (via The Federal), the Free Press Journal, Reuters carried by Arab News, and Reuters summaries by Inside AI and Superpower Daily. Reports give the plot size as 22 hectares or as 53 to 54 acres, which are roughly the same area. We found no AWS statement newer than the ones quoted above and no state government statement.

Details are as reported on October 9, 2026 and may change.