Guwahati: As part of the Centre’s push to accelerate digital transformation in the Northeast, the National Data Centre for the North-Eastern Region (NDC NER) at Amingaon in Assam’s Kamrup district has emerged as a key digital backbone to support e-governance and cloud services across all eight northeastern states.
The initiative is based on the Digital North East Vision 2022, launched in 2018 to use digital technology to improve governance, make daily life easier for people, and support inclusive and sustainable development in the region. Digital infrastructure was identified as one of the core thrust areas under the vision, given the increasing reliance of government services on secure, always-available digital platforms.
In line with this objective, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) approved the establishment of the NDC NER in September 2020 with a total project outlay of Rs 348.66 crore. The facility was developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) through NICSI in association with PWD Assam. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the project on February 18, 2021.
Designed as a state-of-the-art ICT hub, the NDC NER is intended to support faster adoption of e-governance projects in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Officials said the centralised and scalable infrastructure will help address connectivity and resource challenges while improving access to reliable digital services for both government agencies and citizens.
The data centre will host mission-critical applications for various government departments, enabling quicker rollout of citizen-centric services. It will also function as a disaster recovery (DR) hub for other national data centres located in Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar, strengthening service continuity during emergencies.
The facility follows a cloud-first model, offering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) through NIC’s National Government Cloud on a pay-as-you-use basis. Departments can access services such as compute, GPU, storage, databases, Kubernetes, DevOps, security tools and disaster recovery services, reducing the need for individual investments in ICT infrastructure and improving cost efficiency.
Built as an IGBC gold-certified green data centre, the NDC NER has been designed for high availability with a total load capacity of 8.05 MW and an IT load of 4 MW. The modular facility currently supports 200 racks, scalable up to 400 racks, and is capable of handling large-scale transactional and AI workloads, along with data storage exceeding 70 petabytes at full capacity.
Security and regulatory compliance form a central part of the project framework. The facility is equipped with advanced cybersecurity systems, including firewalls, intrusion prevention, DDoS protection, SSL inspection and web application firewalls, supported by dedicated Network Operations and Security Operations Centres.
The cloud platform is compliant with global standards such as ISO 27001, ISO 20000, ISO 22301 and ISO 27017, and aligns with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023.
The Assam government allotted three bighas of land at Amingaon for the project, with an additional four bighas later provided for future expansion. Officials said the project was implemented under the guidance of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, in coordination with NICSI and PWD (Building & NH).
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The NDC NER is expected to play a critical role in strengthening the digital ecosystem of the Northeast, improving access to secure cloud services, and supporting the region’s long-term digital and governance transformation.
