Paradip, Gangapuri State, Akhand Bharathiya Empire

Iron and coal are the biggest drivers of the first industrial revolution, and the state of Gangapuri, which is rich in both and also neighbours a state that has equally rich coal resources, naturally attracted all the heavy industries across the empire. Even if the headquarters of the company is located somewhere else, they have all their manufacturing plants in the Gangapuri Iron and Steel Special Economic Zone.

As a result, the traffic of the Paradip port has blown up beyond proportions. When the Paradip port was first established, it was established as a major military port, which is in an advantageous geographical location to combat the Mughal Empire, but after the empire was unified, it lost some of its lustre to the nearby Vishakapatnam and Kolkata. But with the establishment of the special economic zone, it not only regained its lost lustre but even moved forward to become the undisputed artery of the empire. Its importance is not less than that of Mumbai, Mangaluru, Chennai, Puducherry, Visakhapatnam, Kolkata, Thiruvananthapuram, Nakkavaram, Karachi, and Chabahar.

What's interesting is that, despite its regained prominence, most of the revenue of the port administration is not actually from the ships that dock and leave the harbour but from leasing out warehouse spaces to massive companies on the outskirts of the port. The warehouse space ranges from small to large, and these spaces are ever-expanding as construction is in process throughout the year due to rising demand for warehouse spaces. Currently, the entire eastern city of Paradip is filled with people who are completely dependent on the warehouses for a living.

Among the hundreds of warehouse spaces, there were several gigantic ones, large enough to fit an Antonov An-225, the largest production plane ever built. One of those warehouses belonged to Aakarsh Mobility. If anyone were to take a look inside the warehouse, their eyes could be blinded by the sheer amount of A-7s that were casually held up in platforms like groceries in a supermarket.

Carriages, all attached with shipping containers, came loaded up with cars and went off to be loaded onto a container ship. The cars moved fast, and everyone in the warehouse was working extremely hard.

A middle-aged man with a lean build, wearing a hat of a different colour, ran into the office of the warehouse manager.

"Sir, we received 200 orders from the dealership in Cheranadu."

"Huh!" The manager was taken aback. "Are you sure? I remember they only got the permit a month ago." He could not believe that a dealership was able to establish so many shops across the state all of a sudden, and even if they already had some shops, it would still be impossible to sell out all 200 cars in such a short span of time.

"I am sure, sir. The money has been paid as well. Apparently, the dealership is urging the logistics department of the company, and Director Munirrappa urged us to quickly shift the merchandise."

"Munirrappa ordered?" His expression immediately became serious. Munirrappa, as the Director of Finance of Aakarsh Mobility, if he got involved, then it must be true.

"Yes, sir, I received an Arkha Dristhi telegram from his office, and the passcode meets the protocol that has been set up."

The manager could not hold on anymore. He took matters into his own hands and personally arranged for all two hundred units of A-7 to be loaded onto a container ship of its own and directly shipped to Charanadu, and even informed the captain to unload the cars at whichever port the customer requested.

Sheila was overjoyed that her speculation had become reality. Her decision to sell all 200 units in a single day and issue the bills the very next day had truly paid off, yielding results far more positive than she could have ever expected. The executives of Aakarsh Mobility were extremely pleased, so much so that they increased the credit limit to 500 units, a two and a half fold increase. And when the local newspapers caught wind of a dealership in the state selling out so many A-7s, Sheila's model of partnering with other showrooms and the concept of pre-booking, previously unavailable to civilians, immediately gained widespread fame.

Kulashekaran Company, a new car dealership, immediately became the talk of the town, and wherever the showrooms existed and the handover ceremony was being held, reporters from other states and national newspapers swarmed in.

Dev Menon and a few other people who were the first to place orders were extremely happy to receive the car so soon, and to receive the car with such fanfare. The smiles on their faces could not be wiped off even hours after the handover ceremony.

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The craze for cars is slowly seeping into the empire, with every family that can afford a car aspiring to buy one. As for the novoriche and the elite, they have already bought a few cars: one for themselves, one for family members, and one for something else. And among the elite, there are naturally young brats who get to drive the cars after pestering their parents long enough.

And what do they do when they get a chance to ride the car or even own one? Well, probably show it off to their friends and brag about it everywhere, but some kids race with it. Racing is an inherent instinct in humans, whether racing with each other since ancient times, racing horses, bulls, cows, carriages, or whatever it may be. If it moves, it can be raced.

Pritham Paoli is one such young man who is obsessed with racing. Being from a rich family involved in real estate, he has a chance to own his own car. Although it is not the A-7, since that car even his father finds hard to buy, it is still the Vishwakarma V-1.

And Pritham, feeling the excitement of the race and seeing how much people enjoyed it, realised that there might be an opportunity to make it a business.

So he contacted all the people he knew and pitched his concept to them to see if they wanted to invest. Sadly, although many people felt like his plan would work, they either didn't have the money to spend on their own or did not want to invest. Naturally, he had to ask his own family for the money, and without any surprise, they agreed with him to start his own business. Unfortunately, the funds he was allocated were not even half of what he envisioned.

He wanted to purchase a large plot of land, build a stadium, and build a racetrack, an exciting one with straight lines, curves, and all those exciting elements. He conservatively estimated that it would take 15 to 20 million, especially since if he wanted the business to be profitable, the stadium had to be in a densely populated area, and a densely populated area with income over the middle-class level.

Pritham had to adapt. The 7 million his family had given him was not enough, but he felt like it was enough for a proof of concept. Maybe, looking at the concept, even if his friends could not invest, their parents might, and maybe he could even invite the investment firms. Making the decision, he got down to taking action. He had to choose the location of the first-ever car racing stadium in the empire, or maybe even the world.

He immediately wanted to choose the outskirts of Bengaluru, but remembering how a small plot of land in Bengaluru, which his family owns, is equivalent to several acres in other states, he immediately shivered and did not even try to find out about the price.

Then he looked into locating it around the capitals of other states, and he also saw if there were any incentives provided by that state for startups. Finally, he chose Colombo, not only because it has a very low land price, but also because the state government of Anuradhapuri has tax incentives and tax-free benefits for startups in entertainment and sports.

Besides, maybe it was a coincidence or the gods' grace, there was a small stadium on the outskirts of Colombo that was for sale. The stadium was not too big; in fact, it couldn't even be called a stadium because all the seating arrangements were detachable seats, where the whole platform could be moved as wished since wheels were attached to it. The field was not too big either; it was a relatively small cricket pitch, but this did not matter to Pritham. On the contrary, it made life for him much easier since he could set up the seating arrangement however he wished.

So, purchasing the stadium and the surrounding five kilometres of land for 5 million Varaha, he established the International Federation of Mobility (IFM). He invested the remaining money to flatten the track, build a road, and install a boundary, which emptied out the remaining funds.

P.S. Thank you, Autumn_4crocus, for 3x icecola

P.S. Thank you, Sudhanva_SH, for 2x icecola

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