Chennai, Jan 9 (IANS): Building two more data centres, developing logistics and warehouse facilities, expanding renewable energy generation and getting into lending business for residential property developers are the major plans for the Singapore-headquartered real estate group CapitaLand, said senior officials.

The merger of HDFC and HDFC Bank is expected to result in reduction in lending quantum for the residential real estate developers and it is an opportunity for CapitaLand, said Sanjeev Dasgupta, CEO, CapitaLand Investment India.

He said the business model will be just lending and not the Forward Purchase model (lend to the developer at a project’s early stage with a condition to acquire the property at the end) adopted in the case of some industrial/commercial projects.

In India, the group has a good presence in business parks, industrial and logistics and serviced residences.

The data centres, co-working space and renewable energy businesses are upcoming ones.

CapitaLand will be adding two more data centres – one each in Chennai and Bengaluru – while two data centres in Mumbai (90MW) and Hyderabad (40MW) are in advanced construction stages.

“We will be building data centres in Bengaluru (42 MW) and in Chennai (55 MW). The Chennai data centre will involve an outlay of Rs.2,000 crore,” Gauri Shankar Nagabhushanam, Chief Executive Officer, Business Parks-India, CapitaLand Investment India said.

With a 230 MW data centre under development, the CapitaLand group is also evaluating suitable land parcels in Delhi for a data centre.

Speaking about the group’s renewable energy plans, Nagabhushanam said the first solar power project is expected to go on stream soon in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu.

Dasgupta added, in the first phase the capacity will be 21 MW and 8 MW will be commissioned 6-8 months later.

“Our requirement in the next five years will be about 1GW. We want to go beyond that. The renewable energy business will be a separate vertical. Eighty per cent of the renewable energy asset portfolio will be solar and the balance will be wind,” Dasgupta said.

According to Aloke Buniya, CEO Ascendas Firstspace the group has planned 20-25 million square feet of logistics space in five years over 1,000 acres of land.

CapitaLand has acquired necessary land in National Capital Region (NCR), Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Pune and Mumbai. The group is in the process of land acquisition in Guwahati, Lucknow, Coimbatore, Ahmedabad and Jaipur.