Thane
City in Maharashtra, India, adjoining Mumbai.
Residents near Amazon's site at Thane have protested over power, water and noise, Reuters reported in October 2026, as India's government promised a data-centre policy to keep household bills down. Amazon denies wrongdoing.
Last refreshed: 18 October 2026
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Mentioned in: India vows data centres won't lift bills
Data Centres: Boom and BacklashBackground
Thane is a city in Maharashtra and the headquarters of Thane district. It sits in the north-east of Salsette Island, next to Mumbai, within the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and had more than 1.8 million people at the 2011 census.
Residents living near an Amazon site in the city have protested over power, water and noise, according to a Reuters report in October 2026; Amazon denies wrongdoing. The report ran alongside a pledge on 14 October 2026 from Jitin Prasada, India's junior electronics minister, that a dedicated data-centre policy would stop households paying more for power.
The complaints reach past the city because India's retail power prices are set by state regulators. Large users that leave a state distributor's tariff shrink the base that cross-subsidises household bills. The Central Electricity Authority expects national data-centre demand of about 17 GW by 2031-32, and states compete for that load: Gujarat's subsidised policy, notified in August 2026, targets 7.5 GW.
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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 18 October 2026. Editorial standards.