The court said environmental clearances cannot be ignored for the project.
A plea has raised concerns over temple land, environmental approvals, water and electricity needs.
The court has asked the state to file a consolidated response and will hear the matter next week.
The Andhra Pradesh High Court has directed the state government to ensure that work on the proposed $15 billion Google-Adani data-centre project in Visakhapatnam is carried out with all required legal and environmental permissions, according to a report by Mint.
A bench led by Chief Justice Lisa Gill issued the direction after the court was told that work at the project site had already begun. The court did not grant the petitioner’s request for an interim status quo but asked authorities to ensure that the work had the necessary approvals.
1 August 2026
Get the latest issue of Outlook Business
The court also directed the state government to submit a consolidated response from the departments involved in granting approvals for the project. The matter will be heard next week.
Why The Project Is Facing Legal Challenge
The petition, filed by Bolisetty Satyanarayana, has raised questions over 160 acres of Simhachalam Devasthanam land being used for the project. It also raises concerns about the project’s proximity to a protected area and whether the required environmental clearances cover the data-centre operations.
The petitioner’s counsel argued that the environmental clearance obtained for the project covered construction of the building but not the actual operation of the data centre. He also questioned approvals issued after Google announced the project, saying Google’s name did not appear in the clearances.
Advertisement
The petition further claims that the project site is around 0.86 km from a protected area and could require stricter environmental scrutiny. Questions have also been raised over the project’s water and electricity requirements.
What Andhra Pradesh Government Told Court
The state government disputed the petitioner’s claim over the temple land. Its counsel said the land had not been transferred but leased by the temple authorities to the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC).
The state said the lease would generate around ₹26 crore a year for the temple. It maintained that the arrangement did not amount to a transfer of the land.
Advertisement
Google announced the Visakhapatnam AI hub in October 2025, with a planned $15 billion investment over five years. It later partnered with Adani Enterprises through AdaniConneX to develop a gigawatt-scale data-centre campus with planned capacity of nearly 1 GW.
Construction began in April 2026. The project is part of Andhra Pradesh’s broader push to attract data-centre investments, with the state targeting 6 GW of capacity under its Data Centre Policy 4.0.
