India has become the latest potential market for the two startups attempting to implement the pods-in-a-vaccuum-tube idea from billionaire Elon Musk
Image: Steve Marcus / Reuters
India has become a must-have market for two startups each looking to build its version of the Hyperloop, a superfast surface transportation system that could attain speeds as high as 760 miles-an-hour (1,216 kmph).
The system was proposed in a now-famous paper by entrepreneur Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, over three years ago, and two ventures, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies and Hyperloop One are vying to be the first to actually build one.
The Hyperloop system involves moving pods that levitate inside sealed tubes at near vacuum and both the startups already have initial agreements to start working on the feasibility of building them in the United Arab Emirates — between Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the case of Hyperloop One, and between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain for Hyperloop Transportation Technologies.
Hyperloop is a superfast surface transportation system that could attain speeds as high as 760 miles-an-hour (1,216 kmph)
One proposal for such a system in India is from Mumbai to Pune, and Hyperloop Transporation’s Chairman Bibop Gresta asserts India could make it a reality in 38 months, if the government makes up its mind. That would reduce the travel time between the two cities to a matter of minutes, from the three-odd hours it takes today by road.“ India needs transformational growth and key to this is to embrace urbanisation through disruptive technology