India: In a significant step towards strengthening regional rail connectivity and facilitating faster and more efficient movement of passengers and freight, Indian Railways has approved the construction of a new 38.2km rail line between Mukutban in Adilabad and Gadchandur in Maharashtra at a cost of US$51m. Mukutban and Gadchandur are important industrial and mining centres, serving several cement plants, coal mines and nearby limestone mines.

The new rail line will provide a shorter and more efficient rail route, reducing travel distances, transportation time and associated costs. It will also provide an alternative route to decongest the existing Wardha-Manikgarh section, supporting the smoother movement of freight traffic. As per the Detailed Project Report, the project is expected to support 6.1Mt/yr of freight traffic, which is expected to include coal and coke, cement, sponge iron, scrap metal, iron and steel, fertilisers and grain, among other commodities.

Bolivia: A review by the Technical Office for Strengthening Public Enterprises (OFEP) has deemed the ECEBOL cement plant in Potosí unable to operate indefinitely due to ‘severe planning and logistics deficiencies’ in its development under the previous government administration.

OFEP Director Pablo Camacho strongly questioned the administrative and budgetary decisions guiding the execution of this state project in an interview with local press, arguing that the infrastructure was placed in an unviable location for extractive activities and commercial transportation. “The cement plant in Potosí is never going to produce cement,” said Camacho. “It saddens me because I am from Potosí and this is a wound we Potosí residents carry because we were lied to. They built the plant in the least suitable place, 100km from the limestone deposit and forgot to build a road. They left us without gas. The plant will not have gas!” Camacho also stated that there is no adequate railway line to transport the projected cement volumes to the markets in southern Peru and northern Chile, export goals that justified the plant’s construction, but for which the necessary infrastructure was never built.

The report into the Potosí plant is part of a broader institutional diagnosis prepared by OFEP, which identified 20 state-owned companies in what it deemed ‘critical condition.’

Azerbaijan: The total value of Azerbaijan’s construction materials sector amounted to US$591m in January-August 2026, a rise of 9.0% compared with the same period of 2025. According to the State Statistics Committee, cement production grew by 6.5% over the first eight months, while lime production rose by 78.7%. As of 1 September 2026, companies held 513,500t of marketable clinker and 243,800t of finished cement in warehouses.

India: The Karnataka High Court has overturned a US$50m penalty applied by the state government over limestone mining operations in Kalaburagi district on cement producer ACC, in a major relief to its parent company Adani Group. A division bench of Chief Justice Vibhu Bakhru and Justice KS Hemaleka also directed the Department of Mines and Geology to restore ACC's full access to the Integrated Lease Management System (ILMS) portal.