Google's largest-ever Indian investment — $15bn, built with Gautam Adani's group at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh — is physically under way, with a hillside above the site stripped and terraced. The opposition is now moving through the courts, and coverage on 6 August laid out the numbers on both sides.
The water arithmetic
The city receives roughly 410 million litres a day against demand of 480 million. Its 2.5 million residents already live with rationing. Into that gap the state has guaranteed the project 20 years of supply, while denying that it fast-tracked approval without a proper risk assessment.
860 metres
The site sits that far from Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary, which holds leopards and pangolins. Conservationists' objection is construction noise and machinery rather than land take. Several environmental cases have been filed, with a High Court hearing later this month.
Google's answer
Advanced air cooling, which the company says protects vital local water resources — while conceding it reduces, rather than eliminates, what a hyperscale site consumes. Air cooling also trades water for electricity, and the electricity figure has not been published.
What is being weighed against it
The state projects up to 188,000 jobs, a number that is a projection rather than a commitment. Local marches have carried the line "We cannot drink DATA". Nothing has been paused: this is a project in construction facing litigation, not a halted one.