Hyperloop test track to come up near Pune

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 29

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

According to state government sources, the 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 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), the nodal agency for developing the project, has sought assistance from the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India to prepare safety guidelines for the Hyperloop.

With no functional prototype of Hyperloop anywhere in the world, officials here say they have no benchmark by which to evaluate the project.

The Hyperloop, conceived by Branson, will transport people between two places at a speed of 1500 km/h. The passengers will travel via pods, which will be suspended in tubes in which air pressure will be just nine per cent of the normal pressure above sea level, according to the concept proposed by Branson.