RBI opens 700-rack Tier IV backup site in Bhubaneswar

The Reserve Bank of India inaugurated a 700-rack data center in Bhubaneswar as a backup site for its payment systems, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi opening the campus over the weekend.

Uptime certified the site to Tier IV standards, and it carries 590kW of on-site solar generation, according to a presentation shown at the ceremony. The 18.5-acre campus at Info Valley-II in Odisha, where construction began in March 2023, also houses a cybersecurity training institute, Data Center Dynamics reported. The RBI's primary data center is in Navi Mumbai, and the bank runs a further facility in Kharghar, also in Navi Mumbai.

For allocators underwriting Indian data-center capacity, the key due-diligence question is whether state buildouts are procured from third-party campuses or built in-house; that decides how much public-sector demand reaches the leasing market. This site is a backup for the RBI's own payment systems.

The 590kW of solar works out to about 0.84kW per rack across the 700 racks, so on-site generation supplements rather than supplies the site. It is a single central bank's disaster-recovery requirement, sized in racks and certified for availability. Modi said a secure banking system needs secure digital infrastructure and that the facility reflects an approach that carries development benefits to every region.

A Tier IV certificate covers design; running the site is a staffing problem, and the training institute is being built on the same campus as the racks it protects. The RBI said the facility marks a milestone in strengthening the technological foundation of India's financial system.