Cultural teams perform duff ahead of the cabinetprocession to Praja Soudha at Padil, Mangaluru, on Friday
MANGALURU: DK Shivakumar cabinet, at its first meeting in Mangaluru Friday, approved a Rs 32,611-crore development push for coastal and Malnad regions, alongside a new Sustainable Data Centre Policy that targets 1GW of cumulative IT load by 2031 and at least 10% of India’s AI-ready data centre capacity. The five-year data centre policy from 2026 to 2031, has a revised budget framework of Rs 1,300 crore. Chief minister Shivakumar told reporters around Rs 16,000 crore was earmarked for road development, with another Rs 16,000 crore planned for Mangaluru, Udupi and other coastal areas, including through PPP models. The cabinet also cleared the Coastal and Malnad Karnataka Tourism Policy 2026 and a Coastal Tourism Perspective Plan.
Priyank Kharge, IT-BT minister, said the AI boom has changed the technology landscape and increased concerns over its environmental footprint. “Our objective is not simply to add more capacity, but to build the right capacity in the right locations,” he said. “We will implement a separate tourism policy for fisheries, religious tourism and the coastal region,” Shivakumar said. “There have been different tourism policies in the state, but this policy is intended to strengthen those undertaking new tourism projects.”
Incentives will be linked to power and water efficiency, renewable energy use and other environmental parameters. The policy covers data centres, parks, operators, edge facilities and cable landing stations, with regional digital corridors planned to spread capacity beyond Bengaluru. Resource heat mapping will guide site selection, while a Centre of Excellence will support research. Incentives will cover capital investment, land, electricity, skilling and MSME participation. Department of electronics, IT-BT and S&T will implement the policy, with KITS as the registration interface and Karnataka Udyoga Mitra as the single-window agency.