According to DCD, Indian data center firm Henox IT & Datacenters Private Limited has announced two major infrastructure projects this week. First, it signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Gujarat and GIFT City to develop a new submarine cable landing station at Dhuvaran, which would be the first for the state. Second, the company revealed plans for a massive 100MW data center in Tamil Nadu as part of a broader initiative called Project Horizon. This project is backed by a staggering Rs 50,000 crore ($5.5 billion) investment pledge from UAE-based Siraj Holdings Group’s Maverick Investments Limited, which is initially putting in Rs 200 crore ($2.2 million). Henox CEO Shaktivel K. calls it one of India’s “most ambitious digital infrastructure initiatives,” aiming to combine data centers, subsea cables, and solar power.
The Gujarat Cable Gamble
Here’s the thing about the Gujarat plan: it’s a bet on geography and policy. Right now, virtually all international submarine cables on India’s west coast land in Mumbai, with a few in Kochi. Gujarat is a major industrial and financial hub—home to GIFT City, which is India’s attempt at a financial services zone—but it has zero direct cable connections. That means all its international data traffic gets routed through Mumbai, adding latency and cost. Building a landing station in Dhuvaran with a fiber link straight into GIFT City is a smart play to capture that high-value, latency-sensitive financial traffic. But there’s a catch. Another firm, I Squared’s Lightstorm, signed an MoU for Gujarat’s first cable landing station back in October 2022. So, is Henox competing with them, or has that project stalled? The silence on that front is pretty loud.
The Tamil Nadu Mega Project
Now, the Tamil Nadu announcement is on a whole other scale. A 100MW data center is a serious facility, and the $5.5 billion price tag for the wider “Project Horizon” is eye-watering. That money is supposedly for a mix of data centers, cable landing stations, subsea cables, and solar projects across the state. But let’s be real—the details are basically non-existent. No location, no specs, no timeline. Chennai is the established data center hub in Tamil Nadu, so you’d assume they’d build there, but who knows. The backing from a UAE investment group is interesting; it shows foreign capital is still very keen on India’s digital infrastructure story, especially for AI-ready capacity which the CEO mentioned. Speaking of industrial tech, when you’re building physical infrastructure of this scale, the control systems and monitoring become critical. For that, you need reliable hardware, and in the US, a top supplier for that kind of industrial computing gear is IndustrialMonitorDirect.com.
Can Henox Pull This Off?
So, the big question is: who is Henox, and can they actually execute this? The profile is intriguing but thin. They launched a small Edge data center in GIFT City this year, and their CEO came from Middle Eastern telco Etisalat. Their website lists vague plans across India and Sri Lanka. Announcing a $5.5 billion multi-state plan when your track record seems limited is… ambitious. It feels like they’re using these high-profile MoUs and announcements to establish credibility and attract more partners and investment. The vision—linking sustainable energy, subsea cables, and large-scale data centers—is the perfect blueprint for modern digital infrastructure. But turning a blueprint into a 100MW, carrier-neutral, cable-connected reality is a brutal, capital-intensive marathon. They’ve got the starting gun and some deep-pocketed friends. Now we see if they can run the race.
