Maharashtra earmarks land for Richard Branson''s Hyperloop test track

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 29

The Virgin Hyperloop, a revolutionary mode of transport proposed by British industrialist Richard Branson, has come closer to reality with the Maharashtra Government earmarking a 15-km stretch of land for a test track.

According to state government sources, a 15-km test track for the hyperloop is proposed to be constructed between Kiwale and Urse on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway. Apart from earmarking Rs 300 crore, the Maharashtra Government has got the faculty and students of IIT-Bombay also to participate in the project.

Reports say, the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA), which is the nodal agency for developing the hyperloop project, has sought assistance from the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India to prepare safety guidelines for the Hyperloop.

With no functional prototype of the Hyperloop anywhere in the world, officials here say they have no yardstick for comparison. The Hyperloop, conceived by Branson, will transport people between two places at a speed of 1500 km per hour. The passengers will travel via pods suspended in tubes
in which air pressure will be just nine per cent of the normal levels, according to the concept proposed by Branson.

Officials say Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis after a meeting with Branson three years ago is personally pushing for the Hyperloop project.