Passenger car shipments increased by 34.3% in July to 457.8 thousand units

The Russian airline 'Nordwind Airlines' is starting regular direct flights from Kazan to two cities in Uzbekistan—Samarkand and Namangan. This was reported to the press service of Kazan International Airport.

Flights from Kazan to Samarkand will begin on August 26th and will operate weekly. The flight duration is 3 hours and 5 minutes. As of August 13th, tickets for the first Kazan—Samarkand flight on August 26th are offered on the 'Nordwind' website starting from 15,213 rubles, which is equivalent to approximately 2.2 million soms. Ticket prices may vary depending on the time of purchase and the fare.

The Kazan—Namangan route starts on September 5th and will also be operated weekly. The flight time for this direction is 3 hours and 20 minutes. Tickets on the airline's website are available from 14,833 rubles, or about 2.1 million soms.

Additionally, it was announced that it is also possible to reach Samarkand and Namangan via a transit in Kazan from Moscow or St. Petersburg. Earlier in July, 'Nordwind' had already launched regular flights from Kazan to Tashkent.

Another new route between Uzbekistan and Russia will open in September. The airline 'Centrum Air' will start operating flights Tashkent—Perm—Tashkent on September 7th. These flights will run every Monday, and the ticket price will start from 3.4 million soms.

Larsen and Toubro announced on Thursday that it has signed a contract worth up to 15,000 crore rupees (equivalent to $1.57 billion) with the American cloud platform Together AI. This order involves the deployment of an artificial intelligence data center utilizing high-performance chips from Nvidia.

According to the company's statement, this contract, secured by its AI infrastructure subsidiary LTN Compute, ranges from 10,000 crore to 15,000 crore rupees ($1.05 to $1.57 billion). This marks Larsen and Toubro's entry into the AI factory manufacturing business sector.

The center will be located in the company's Vyoma.AI division on a campus in the southern Indian city of Chennai. It will be equipped with 10,000 NVIDIA B300 chips, which is the largest deployment of its kind in India. The company specified that this center will provide support for the Together AI cloud platform for AI inference, fine-tuning, and training tasks. Nvidia's B300 chips are among the most powerful available for performing AI inference tasks.

Work on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project is progressing significantly. The National High Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL) has set the operational start date for the high-speed train section from Surat to Bilimora as August 15 of next year. According to Transport Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, this 508 km high-speed rail corridor, linking Mumbai and Ahmedabad, will be fully operational by 2029.

Meanwhile, the central government has begun planning another new high-speed rail corridor in the country. In the coming years, travel between Hyderabad and Chennai will become high-speed. The proposed Hyderabad-Amaravathi-Chennai high-speed rail corridor will reduce the current train journey between these cities, which takes about 12 hours, to approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes. This project is considered an important step towards connecting three South Indian states—Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu—to the high-speed rail network.

The estimated length of this high-speed rail corridor will be about 760.09 kilometers, with plans for 18 stations. This project is part of the high-speed rail expansion plan announced in the 2026-27 budget. Currently, the project is in the planning and development stage. The track length will vary across the three states: about 518.54 km in Andhra Pradesh, 180.32 km in Telangana, and 61.23 km in Tamil Nadu.

The inclusion of Amaravathi in this corridor is one of the most crucial aspects. For a long time, the Andhra Pradesh side insisted that the high-speed rail route pass through the state capital. Implementing this requirement should ensure improved transport accessibility for Amaravathi and surrounding areas. NHSRCL will work on preparing a Detailed Project Report (DPR) along with further route finalization and feasibility studies.

The benefits of the high-speed railway are not limited to passengers. An increase in commercial and real estate activity is expected in the cities and areas where stations will be built. The attractiveness of these zones may rise for projects in hospitality, offices, logistics, retail, and housing.

In Telangana, areas such as Shamshabad, Future City, Dry Port, Halia, and Vadapally could potentially benefit. In Andhra Pradesh, potential growth centers could include Amaravathi, Guntur, Dachepally, Ongole, and Nellore. Furthermore, northern parts of Chennai and Tiruvallur are expected to benefit from improved connectivity.

If this corridor develops according to the approved plan, it could drastically change the lives of passengers and business people traveling between Hyderabad, Amaravathi, and Chennai. The potential travel time of 2 hours and 20 minutes will simplify business trips or short day visits. However, the final route, station locations, land acquisition process, financing model, and construction timelines still need to be determined. Further feasibility studies and the Detailed Project Report will provide a clearer picture regarding cost, route, and construction. Currently, the project is in the planning phase to enhance high-speed rail accessibility in South India. Decisions regarding land acquisition, financing, and construction will only be made after the route and DPR work is completed.