The Chief Minister of Maharashtra recently visited Hyperloop, where he watched the Mumbai-Pune tube demo run. Here is a video of Elon Musk’s much-publicized Hyperloop. The rather futuristic mode of transport will connect Pune and Mumbai. It’s expected that the travel time between the two cities will be just 25 minutes, which is many times lesser than the 3.5 hours it takes to travel by road. Work will soon commence on the 15 Km-long demo track of Virgin Hyperloop One in Pune.
Soon, Virgin HyperlookOne will send engineers to Pune. PMRDA has already identified a 15-km row demonstration track for Hyperloop. What’s really noteworthy is that 70% of the materials and components that will be required for Hyperloop can be sourced from within Maharashtra itself. The Hyperloop will connect central Pune, the Navi Mumbai International Airport and Mumbai in 25 minutes. The high-speed passenger and cargo hyperloop plans to make a whopping 150 million trips on this route annually. This will help passengers save many hours of travel time between the two cities. It will also offer the rapid movement of palletised freight and light cargo between the Port of Mumbai and Pune.
As per an initial pre-feasibility study conducted by Virgin Hyperloop One, the upcoming Pune-Mumbai route is likely to offer social-economic benefits, worth USD 55 billion, such as time savings, reduction in emissions, reduction in accidents and operational cost savings, in over 30 years of operation. The fully electric hyperloop system will also ease the severe expressway congestion between the two important cities of Maharashtra. It’s also expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 150,000 tons annually.
Commenting on his visit to Virgin Hyperloop One, Shri. Devendra Fadnavis, Chief Minister of Maharashtra, said,“This was a very fruitful discussion and we should be able to start moving on this project very fast.” Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, commented, “It is an honour to work with the State of Maharashtra and its key stakeholders, sharing their vision to transform not only transportation but wider society.”
The Virgon Hyperloop One is a California-based American company that is working to commercialise the Hyperloop for transporting passengers and cargo at airline speeds but at a fraction of the cost. The concept of Hyperloop transportation was first introduced by American business magnate Elon Musk. One of the potential routes that have been identified for a public-private partnership is the Pune-Mumbai stretch.
Basically, the Hyperloop uses a linear electric motor to accelerate and decelerate an electromagnetically levitated pod through a low-pressure tube. The vehicle can achieve speeds of up to 1080 kmph without facing any sort of turbulence. The entire system is autonomous, quiet and cleaner than conventional modes of transport.
