Pranav Hotkar
Mumbai, India - July 14, 2026 - Infrastructure engineering company KEC International has entered India's rapidly growing data center power infrastructure market after securing its first transmission and distribution (T&D) project dedicated to supplying electricity to a domestic data center. The milestone forms part of new orders worth INR 1,180 crore (~USD 122.84 million) spanning the company's transmission, renewables, civil, and cables businesses.
The data center-related contract involves the construction of a 400 kV transmission line that will provide high-voltage power connectivity to an Indian data center campus. While KEC did not disclose the customer or project location, the order marks the company's entry into one of India's fastest-growing infrastructure segments, where developers are racing to secure reliable grid connections for AI and hyperscale facilities.
Beyond the data center project, KEC secured additional contracts across its core businesses, including transmission and distribution projects in India and overseas, renewable energy infrastructure, civil engineering works, and cable supply orders. The company said the diversified order inflow strengthens its execution pipeline while expanding its presence in high-growth infrastructure markets.
For the data center industry, the transmission project underscores the growing importance of grid infrastructure as operators deploy increasingly power-intensive AI workloads. Modern AI campuses frequently require hundreds of megawatts of electricity, making dedicated high-voltage transmission assets a critical component of project development. In many cases, access to power has become a greater constraint than land availability, prompting developers to invest heavily in substations, transmission lines, and utility partnerships before construction begins.
India's data center market has witnessed significant investment over the past two years as global cloud providers, colocation operators, and enterprise customers expand digital infrastructure to support artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital services. As facilities increase in scale, engineering firms with expertise in transmission and distribution are finding new opportunities beyond traditional utility networks.
KEC's entry into the data center power segment reflects this broader market shift. The company has long been a major engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for power transmission projects in India and international markets. Applying that expertise to data center infrastructure positions it to participate in a growing pipeline of AI-driven developments requiring resilient, high-capacity electrical networks.
Managing Director and CEO Vimal Kejriwal said the latest order wins reinforce the company's strategy of expanding into emerging infrastructure opportunities while strengthening its order book across multiple business verticals.
As India's AI ecosystem continues to expand, investment is increasingly extending beyond server halls to the supporting electrical infrastructure that enables large-scale computing. KEC's first dedicated data center transmission project highlights how EPC firms are becoming integral to the buildout of next-generation digital infrastructure, where dependable power delivery is essential for supporting hyperscale and AI-ready facilities.
