A fire tore through a data centre in New Delhi’s Greater Kailash-I neighborhood in the early hours of June 5, causing what Tata Communications has described as extensive damage to hosted equipment and servers. The blaze started around 2:47 AM in the battery room of the facility, which sits inside Next-Gen Tower and is operated by ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) on premises leased by Tata Communications.
Losses from the destroyed infrastructure are estimated in the hundreds of crores of rupees. For context, one crore equals roughly $120K, putting potential damages well into the tens of millions of dollars. No Tata staff were reported as casualties, though two firefighters sustained injuries battling the flames.
Ripple effects across India’s internet backbone
The damage wasn’t confined to one company’s server racks. Google Cloud users across major Indian metropolitan areas experienced reduced network capacity and elevated latency in the fire’s aftermath. Multiple regional internet service providers also reported disruptions. Tata Communications activated business continuity protocols aimed at keeping customer services running. The fire affected roughly 200 square feet of the battery room.
