n the last week of November, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz announced the establishment of Pakistan’s first Tier-IV data centre at the Nawaz Sharif IT City in the Central Business District of Lahore. She presided over a meeting to review progress on the CBD Nawaz Sharif IT City project before announcing that the data centre will be established in collaboration with China. The groundbreaking project marks a significant step forward in Pakistan’s digital journey.

The CBD is a 790-acre business centre. According to Riaz Hussain, the CBD technical director, Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has a vision of a hi-tech IT city modeled on successful examples like Bangalore and Ahmedabad in India. He says the chief minister has asked the CBD to provide free land to IT companies to attract investment and create job opportunities, positioning the Punjab as a hub for technological growth. He says the CBD will only recover the development charges and the acquisition price of the land.

He says the business districts such as Johar Town and Gulberg’s Main Boulevard were initially developed for residential purposes. Over time, these areas were commercialised but lacked the infrastructure to support modern businesses. “Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz aims to change this. The government will implement a comprehensive master-plan to ensure a streamlined and efficient environment for businesses and data management.”

The Nawaz Sharif IT City will have three distinct components. One of those is the Silicon Block, designed specifically for offices of IT companies. The Silicon Block consists of 29 plots, 22 of which have already been sold. The buyers are given a three-year timeline to develop their infrastructure. The first year is a grace period for obtaining necessary approvals. The initiative is expected to transform the information technology landscape in Pakistan by encouraging both local and international companies to make investments.

Riaz Hussain says data centres are at the heart of this vision. Pakistan currently imports $2 billion worth of data storage annually. Establishing a local data centre is expected to save valuable foreign exchange and attract international clients seeking data storage solutions. With an estimated value of $1 to $2 billion, the Nawaz Sharif Data Centre will offer state-of-the-art infrastructure tailored for the growing demand of the digital economy.

Muhammad Junaid Younis, the project coordinator at NESPAK, the project consultants, says the project goals include enhancing digital capabilities for both government and private sectors. He says data centre will support advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and strengthen data sovereignty to improve national security.

Asked whether general businesses too will benefit from NS Data Centre, he says, “Both public and private entities will benefit from it. The NS Data Centre is designed to serve a wide range of stakeholders. In the public sector, government departments and agencies will get secure, high-performance storage and computing capabilities. In the private sector, all kinds of enterprises, including startups and large corporations will be able to leverage the data centre for cloud services, co-location, edge computing and data analytics.”

The data centre’s design aligns with global standards for Tier-IV certification, which ensures 99.995 percent uptime. Such reliability is achieved through redundant power and cooling systems, fault-tolerant infrastructure and continuous monitoring. These measures are essential for providing uninterrupted services to clients.

Costs and timeline

Junaid says the project cost will run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Since the data centre will be established mainly by private companies, funding may be sourced from both public and private sources.

According to NESPAK, the primary objectives of the Nawaz Sharif IT Data Centre are ambitious. For the first five years, the focus is on scalability, sustainability, security and economic growth. The data center aims to meet the growing demand for data services by ensuring that its infrastructure can adapt to future needs. It is committed to achieving energy efficiency through the use of renewable energy sources, safeguarding critical data with top-tier cyber-security measures, and generating significant revenue by offering commercial data services. These goals align with the broader vision of fostering economic development in the Punjab.

To adapt to the increasing demand for edge computing and hybrid cloud solutions, the data centre has been designed with flexibility in mind. Its modular architecture is tailored to support the rapid expansion of edge computing applications, particularly in sectors like smart cities, autonomous vehicles and internet of things.

The data centre is expected to generate substantial revenue by offering services such as renting out space for third-party servers and equipment; providing cloud storage and software services; and delivering managed solutions like disaster recovery. These revenue streams will not only sustain the data centre’s operations but also fund further infrastructure development, positioning it as a key player in the region’s digital economy.

Managing a Tier-IV data centre comes with its own set of challenges, such as the complexity of maintaining redundant systems; the costs associated with advanced infrastructure; and the need for a highly skilled workforce. To address these challenges, the Nawaz Sharif IT Data Centre will invest in regular upgrades, advanced automation tools and comprehensive training programmes for its personnel.

Security remains a top priority for the Nawaz Sharif IT Data Centre.

“To ensure the safety of clients’ data, the facility will employ round-the-clock surveillance, biometric access controls and perimeter fencing to prevent unauthorized physical access,” says Junaid. Riaz Hussain says that the CBD will have its own safe city type security mechanism.

Cyber-security measures include multi-layered defenses, end-to-end encryption and regular security audits to protect against potential cyber threats. The data centre will adhere to national and international data protection regulations to maintain the highest standards of data privacy.

The writer is a media veteran interested in politics,

consumer rights and

entrepreneurship

The data centre is expected to

generate substantial revenue by

offering services such as renting out space for third-party servers and equipment; providing cloud storage and software services; and delivering managed solutions like disaster recovery.