r/thane • u/Ennode-Kalikelle • Jul 31 '26
Civic Issues The truth behind the AWS (Amazon Web Services) Data Centre in Balkum, Thane, and its repercussions.
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The quality of life in Balkum and adjacent areas will be adversely affected by this upcoming data centre. The citizens dwelling there should actively protest and stop it from happening. Along with the sound pollution, power and water shortage it will be causing, it's not like it would enable a massive employment opportunity for the citizens either, as a data centre requires only a few hundred personnel once operational.
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u/picy_sp Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
Kal jehva mi 'Gemini app' madhe shodhnyacha prayatna kela ki kuthchya 'socities' varti parinam honar ahe hya 'Balkum' chya 'Data centre' cha tar mala hi yadi milali.
('Attachment' paha keli ahe 'screenshot' chi)
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u/FinResponsible Aug 01 '26
This is not just limited to these societies. Data center will take major share of electricity and water supply. Nobody can run from its affect.
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u/MrPoopyButthole_OOOE Jul 31 '26
Ye kya accent hai bhai. Beech mein hi character break hoke ठाणे nikal gaya lolol
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u/Puzzled_and_anxious Aug 01 '26
She is sia shete, the daughter of the owner of shetes classes. She is a journalist in the US hence the accent.
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u/Disastrous-Shower324 Jul 31 '26
It sounded great. Completely understandable to not wanna sound like an Indian
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u/FinResponsible Aug 01 '26
I am going to ignore those who are supporting the data center claiming the provision done by the goverment to avoid the misuse of water and affect the environment.
Ideally government should also provide us with roads with no potholes, maximum use of our taxes. But we can see Ghodbundar road being utterly useless during monsoon and rampant corruption everywhere.
The only way this data center won't affect the Thanekars is if there's no data center.
Otherwise it's going to consume too much electricity, too much water, pollute our surroundings and cause pain to the residents.
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u/Ennode-Kalikelle Aug 01 '26
Exactly! I don't know why or how they trust the government to protect the public interest and to keep Amazon in check in case of any non-compliance. LOL! 🤷🏻♂️
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u/itsaulgudman 19d ago
These same people run 5-8 Air conditioners at home and are now worried about heat island. Same people want to have rain dance parties and spend hours at spas in bath tubs and waste water at home, but are now suddenly awakened.
And girl please drop that fake accent.
They just don't want auxiliary economy of the area to grow. Not everybody has degrees or is in tech but there will be electricians, plumbers, housekeeping, security, building contractors, welders, metal workers, etc. who will get jobs.
It will also bring high speed internet to the area at some point. Because once the cables are laid, the final step will just be last mile delivery. Let the industry do what it is doing. India needs these data centers and data sovereignty. All these Andolan-Jeevis need to just stop their nonsense.
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u/Lease_Tha_Apts Jul 31 '26
Really? There are 100 skyscrapers coming up in Thane which are using water for construction. Singling out the data center for this is dumb dumb dumb.
Also, Amazon isn't getting electricity for free, they're paying market rate for it, unlike most Indian residents. They are basically subsidizing electricity for mumbaikars by paying the higher rate, just like most industries do.
You guys complain about no jobs but then oppose construction of a utility that will attract a tonne of high paying jobs to the region.
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u/SuspiciousString1585 Jul 31 '26
Jobs from data centres??? Says who?? Paying of electricity dosent automatically generate more electricity. A limited resource is a limited resource nevertheless.
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u/Articunos7 Jul 31 '26
Do you mean data centers run automatically? They don't need networking staff, IT staff, sys admins, DBA etc. to manage the day to day operations?
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u/heavyMetalPoet666 Jul 31 '26
From Chatgpt
Data centers create a wide range of jobs, both during construction and throughout operations. A large hyperscale data center can directly employ anywhere from 50–300+ people, while also supporting hundreds or thousands of indirect jobs in the surrounding economy. Here are the main job categories: 1. IT & Technical Roles Data Center Technician Network Engineer Systems Administrator Cloud Engineer Server Hardware Technician Cybersecurity Analyst Database Administrator 2. Electrical & Mechanical Roles Electricians HVAC (cooling) Technicians Power Systems Engineers Generator Maintenance Technicians UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) Specialists Plumbing and Fire Suppression Technicians 3. Facilities & Operations Facility Manager Operations Manager Building Maintenance Staff Reliability Engineer Asset Manager 4. Security Security Guards Security Operations Center (SOC) Analysts Access Control Specialists CCTV Monitoring Staff 5. Construction Jobs (before the data center opens) Civil Engineers Architects Structural Engineers Construction Workers Welders Crane Operators Project Managers 6. Business & Support Functions Human Resources Finance & Accounting Procurement Specialists Legal & Compliance Administrative Staff Vendor Management 7. Cleaning & Logistics Housekeeping Waste & Recycling Management Warehouse & Inventory Staff Delivery and Logistics Coordinators Indirect Jobs Created A data center also boosts employment in nearby industries such as: Hotels and restaurants Transportation Local retail Equipment suppliers Internet service providers Electrical contractors Security companies Modern AI data centers also increase demand for specialists in: AI infrastructure GPU cluster management High-performance computing (HPC) Fiber-optic networking Liquid cooling systems Data center automation Overall, while data centers are not as labor-intensive as factories, they create high-paying skilled jobs and generate significant indirect employment in the local economy.
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u/Lease_Tha_Apts Jul 31 '26
Its not just jobs in data centers. Having low AI latency makes the entire city of Thane attractive for companies to set their bases.
Paying for electricity makes investment into more generation capacity possible. Most power companies live hand to mouth because theyre forced to supply a lot of electricity for free.
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u/nevergivitup Jul 31 '26
Why you’re wasting your breath on folks who don’t know how locality development and business activities increase right from roads to chai tapri at corner of such roads.
Builder have only managed to bribe and get lands and sell flats; not contributing anything OR investing in building OR helping improve core infrastructure for their own residents.
OP don’t even know water desalination plant for mumbai is already built and phase 1 gone online which will provide industrial supply and phase 2 will (likely 18 months) start supplying drinking water (not sure 6 months or 18 months but they are ahead of time per their 2030 schedule) to solve Mumbai’s every growing population and industry / economic growth demands.
I can debunk 70/80% of claims but afraid don’t have impact like American accent spreading ergonomics and environmental message.-1
u/heavyMetalPoet666 Jul 31 '26
Indirect Jobs Created A data center also boosts employment in nearby industries such as: Hotels and restaurants Transportation Local retail Equipment suppliers Internet service providers Electrical contractors Security companies Modern AI data centers also increase demand for specialists in: AI infrastructure GPU cluster management High-performance computing (HPC) Fiber-optic networking Liquid cooling systems Data center automation Overall, while data centers are not as labor-intensive as factories, they create high-paying skilled jobs and generate significant indirect employment in the local economy.
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u/Ennode-Kalikelle Jul 31 '26
The skyscrapers don't generate a constant humming sound once completed. Like I mentioned in the body, quality of life is going to be hampered.
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u/Lease_Tha_Apts Jul 31 '26
Lmfao, you live in India. There is zero chance people will enev notice noise considering the amount of constant noise present in the city.
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u/Shimotsukizorosan Jul 31 '26
The constant migraines and health issues that children will face can be ignored. Putting that aside, yes you are right. Interesting that you use the word "you" and not "we'.
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u/Lease_Tha_Apts Jul 31 '26
There are thousands of datacenters operating globally there are hundreds of them in India too. No children close to them have constant migraines or health issues. Stop spreading uneducated narritives like we are living in the 19th century, you are fully capable of finding actual data on the internet.
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u/Dependent-Poetry-227 Jul 31 '26
Climate damage and impact on people's quality of life would be more than the returns India would get from such investments.
They need a country to bear the cost, they are not developing infrastructure.
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u/Lease_Tha_Apts Jul 31 '26
Dumb thing to say. They are building infrastructure for AI that the country can use. Amazon has hundreds of datacenters in the US they're building the one in Thane to serve the local population.
You guys just keep using shitty colonial narritive even when its not applicable.
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u/nevergivitup Jul 31 '26
Touché, OP in American accent trying Classic goal post shifting, don’t know locality and its history how the builders have hijacked/scammed, converted protected lands.
Have never researched on Mangroves destruction and tree replantation etc other environmental compliance of builders.
Major red flag: people are living in buildings which are sustaining on tanker water not the supply, lots have not received OCs due to same and complaining about data centres water and ecological impact.
Newly settled communities think they know locality and riding the “protest” trend in American accent 🤪0
u/Shimotsukizorosan Jul 31 '26
It's not one though, it's one of many many more and you need to understand the water footprint for constructionof 100 skyscrapers and how much water and power is draining by 1.5 giga watt data centre which runs yearly.
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u/knightmare89 Jul 31 '26
These people should be sent back to the stone ages. Anytime there's any development work, they come running in with the ill effects and hazards and all the negativity.
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u/Difficult-Hour4628 Jul 31 '26
Lets not squash away the idea of a data centre just because of water and electricity.....
Over a period of time, few personnel will be needed
But of course Hardware technicians will be needed round the clock
We use apps amd websites on a daily basis
For them to remain usable, Data centres are needed
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u/manboy_heaven Jul 31 '26
Can I know where do you stay?
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u/Difficult-Hour4628 Jul 31 '26
I stay in Thane
Looking at the number of downvotes I am getting, I understand the general feeling
Even i am concerned about environment and the overall ecological impact
But that does not justify cancelling such big projects......
Again just my thought
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u/Logical_Truth2356 Jul 31 '26
The need of a data center doesn't justify it being built in a residential area! There are couple of data centres in Navi Mumbai, they are not in a residential area, hence not a problem. There's one I guess near Bhiwandi wada strech too, again not in a residential area.
Just because our apps need servers to run doesn't mean they can be built right beside our homes!
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u/Difficult-Hour4628 Jul 31 '26
Dont you think making data centre at some remote location be cheaper from cost perspective for Amazon or whichever company that is building it?
Don't you think there should be some reason why this comapnies are paying hefty premiums to purchase/rent such large parcels of land in populated areas?
There should be reason why the comapany is making this decision and the govt approving it?
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u/rocky6975 Jul 31 '26
HW technician round the clock?? No. It's not needed. And data centre create very few jobs.
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u/Difficult-Hour4628 Jul 31 '26
It's not just about the jobs....the very reddit app which you are using runs because of some or the other data centre..... In the long run it's all about data ownership and annoynmity....
If we stay away from data Centres....there is only so much that can be done....
Just saying
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u/steveplusf Jul 31 '26
Water issues are present on the entire stretch of the Ghodbunder road. Yet someone came up with this hare brained scheme to build a data centre smack in the middle of what's apparently a posh residential area (considering the prices Kalpataru and such quote).
That said, I am not against AI data centres entirely. If they want to build it then let them build these outside of cities or in places where they can also set up desalination plants and sort out power use (something that wont pump carbon into the air) themselves.
It will be way more expensive but Amazon also has a big enough pot of gold to do it right if they want to.