Ashok Minda Group, Country’s leading auto component manufacturer, has plans to set up a new manufacturing facility in Uzbekistan with an initial investment of $25 million.

Sources reported that the raw material for the proposed Uzbekistan plant would be shipped from India to control input costs as key inputs like steel and plastic cost, which is available lower cost in India compared to abroad.

Washington - Uzbekistan has agreed to allow US non-military supplies to pass through its territory to reach neighbouring Afghanistan, US officials said Friday in a deal that could aid the US military in its fight against a growing insurgency in the region.

Goods covered by the agreement include food, medical supplies and building materials, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. It follows similar agreements with other countries to the west of Afghanistan, including Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Moscow/Tashkent, Uzbekistan - Uzbekistan's President Islam Karimov agreed Wednesday to allow NATO and US troops transit through the Central Asian country to supply operations in Afghanistan.

Uzbekistan joins Tajikistan and Russia in officially approving the shipment of building supplies, medicines and water for use by US-led coalition forces fighting in Afghanistan.

"Uzbekistan has agreed to the transit of non-military cargo to Afghanistan," Karimov was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying.

Dushanbe, Feb 21 : The United States would be sending supplies to its troops stationed in Afghanistan through a new route via Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, a top US military leader has informed.

Rear Admiral Mark Harnitchek said Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have agreed to allow transit of non-lethal US supplies through their territory.

"Tajikistan has given its agreement to the use of its rail and automobile routes for the transit of non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan," The Dawn quoted Harnitchek, as saying.

Dushanbe, Feb. 20 : Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have approved the transportation of non-military NATO supplies for Afghanistan via their territory, a US military commander said on Tajik state television.

"Tajikistan has allowed (NATO) to use its railways and roads to transit non-military goods to Afghanistan," said Rear Admiral Mark Harnitchek of the US Transportation Command.

Washington is looking for alternative supply routes for NATO troops stationed in Afghanistan after militants in Pakistan stepped up their attacks on supply fleets.

Tashkent, Uzbekistan - Three people died and 21 were injured when a fire at a Soviet-era ammunition depot set off domino blasts overnight in southern Uzbekistan, local agencies reported on Thursday. 

Regional authorities fear more explosions from the smouldering wreckage. 

"A fire at the weapons depot set off explosions which the soldiers were unable to contain ... Now there is a very real danger of new blast from unexploded shells at the depot," an Uzbek Defence Ministry source was quoted by Ferghana news agency as saying. 

The series of explosions in the town of Kagan shattered windows more than 12 kilometers away, Ferghana cited witnesses as saying, and caused panic among local residents jolted awake at about 2 am.