A 60 MW data centre in Tokyo costs roughly $1.1 billion to build. The same facility in Mumbai costs about $410 million. That gap, from Turner & Townsend’s latest benchmark, explains why global AI infrastructure money keeps heading for India’s financial capital, and why the benchmark leaves out as much as it shows.

Mumbai, October 29, 2026: Turner & Townsend, the global programme manager, ranks Mumbai second-cheapest of 62 markets in the 10th edition of its Data Centre Construction Cost Index (DCCI). Mumbai averages $6.83 per watt, behind only Shanghai at $5.79. The index draws on more than 500 live or recently completed projects and a survey of over 400 industry experts. Costs are indicative and based on a typical 60 MW design.

The arithmetic on those figures is GyanMuse’s, not the report’s: at $6.83 a watt, a 60 MW build comes to about $410 million. At Tokyo’s $18.28, it is about $1.1 billion. Tokyo has topped the cost table for the fourth year running, followed by Osaka ($17.15), Zurich ($15.93), Singapore ($15.39) and Silicon Valley ($15.01).

How the cheapest and costliest markets compare

Rank (of 62)	Market	Cost per watt
1	Tokyo	$18.28
2	Osaka	$17.15
4	Singapore	$15.39
14	Hong Kong	$12.97
26	Jakarta	$11.96
58	UAE	$9.20
59	Bogota	$9.13
60	Ho Chi Minh City	$8.32
61	Mumbai	$6.83
62	Shanghai	$5.79

Rank 1 is the most expensive. Turner & Townsend says the cheapest markets offer lower labour costs and greater access to workers.

Vivek Agrawal, Data Centre Lead in India at Turner & Townsend, says sustained investment in Mumbai reflects investor confidence as “AI, cloud and the need to hold data locally converge.” He points to the city’s role as India’s primary international gateway, with undersea fibre-optic cables and dense digital demand. “The key now is to secure power, specialist contractors and long-lead equipment early so that this cost advantage endures,” he says.

The catches

The dollar figure moves with the rupee. The report converts rupee costs (₹593.57 per watt) at ₹86.96 to the dollar, and notes that US-dollar figures should be read in that context. A weaker rupee makes Mumbai look cheaper in dollar terms, without any change in what builders pay locally.

Construction is only part of the bill. The index measures build cost per watt. It does not cover land, running costs or the price of power over the life of a facility, which the release does not address.

Power and people are the real bottlenecks, globally. In the survey, 56% of respondents named power as a major obstacle, and 52% said utility connections typically take one to two years, with 32% reporting more than two years. Some 81% said skilled labour is moderately or highly constrained in their region, and only 52% think contractor capacity is manageable. The release does not break these results down for India.

Costs are still rising, though more slowly. In 2026, 52% of respondents saw cost increases above 6%, and around 20% saw more than 15%. For 2027, 28% expect rises of 1% to 5%. AI is the driver: 52% expect more than half of their 2027 projects to be AI data centres.

Context

Paul Barry, who leads the index, says data centre capital spending is now $800 billion a year and is expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2050, a figure he attributes to PwC. He also notes that gigawatt-scale power demand and liquid cooling are pushing up the scale of builds, and that community consent is increasingly necessary.

Turner & Townsend, which is majority-owned by CBRE, sells project management for such builds, so it has a commercial interest in the sector’s growth. The survey sample size per market, including Mumbai, is not given.