Mumbai: Vietnam-based Vin Group Joint Stock Company on Wednesday announced that it will invest around US$8.5 billion over the next two years in Maharashtra in the fields of sustainable urban development, industry and tourism, renewable energy, and electric mobility. It proposes to set up various projects on 5,000 acres in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, and it is estimated it will create 24,700 jobs. The company on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with the state industries dept and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) in the presence of chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.As per this agreement, emphasis will be placed on setting up large-scale smart residential townships. An integrated township will be developed on 2,700 acres, and a population of about two lakh has been envisaged to reside here. Along with this, it is proposed to start electric taxi services to promote electric mobility in the state, and a mobility-as-a-service platform will also be developed.Fadnavis also inaugurated the MB3 data centre of Equinix at his official residence, Varsha. The data centre is spread over 3.7 acres and has been set up with a total investment of about US$750 million (approximately Rs 6,000 crore). Once fully operational, it will have a capacity of over 4,200 cabinets and will be connected to Equinix’s data centres across the world through a hybrid multi-cloud interconnection facility, said a govt press release. A large portion of the energy required for the data centre is being provided by a 26.6 MW solar project in Yavatmal. Currently, about 60% of the energy used in Equinix data centre in Mumbai is sourced from this solar project, stated the press release.
