Friday, 25 April 2025
Friday, 25 April 2025
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), with support from the ministry of railways, has constructed a 422-metre-long hyperloop test track, marking a significant step in futuristic transport technology.
Once operational, this system could cover 350 km in 30 minutes, reducing travel time between cities like Delhi and Jaipur to less than half an hour.
Announcing the development on X, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw wrote: “Government-academia collaboration is driving innovation in futuristic transportation.”
The railways funded the hyperloop track, built on the IIT Madras campus. Vaishnaw expressed optimism about its progress, remarking that the first phase of 422 metres would play a crucial role in advancing hyperloop technology.
He also announced a third grant of $1 million for IIT Madras to continue research and development in this field. This grant follows two earlier grants of the same amount.
The steel giant ArcelorMittal announced in January 2024 that it had established a partnership with IIT Madras and was working with the institute’s Hyperloop Technology teams—Avishkar Hyperloop, a student team, and TuTr Hyperloop, a start-up incubated at IIT Madras—to develop the technology.
The railways are considering launching a commercial hyperloop project soon.
Dubbed the ‘fifth mode of transport’, hyperloop is a high-speed transit system designed for long-distance travel. It operates by propelling pods through vacuum-sealed tubes, reducing friction and air resistance. Hyperloop costs much less than air travel.
An official statement explained that the system employs electromagnetic levitation, allowing pods to reach speeds of up to Mach 1.0 (761 mph at sea level).
Experts expect this technology to offer weather-proof, collision-free travel at nearly twice the speed of an airplane, consuming minimal energy and enabling round-the-clock operations.
Hyperloop is the brainchild of Tesla founder Elon Musk, who open-sourced the basic design in 2013, according to The Economic Times.
In 2016, the Modi government was in talks with two companies to kick-start the Hyperloop project in India.
In 2019, the Devendra Fadnavis government in Maharashtra announced India’s first hyperloop project, from Mumbai to Pune. Richard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop.
