There may be nothing as universally abhorred as horrendous traffic, so naturally, solutions for avoiding it are popping up throughout the globe. Last September, Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) announced a new deal with the state of Andhra Pradesh in southeast India to build a hyperloop in the second-most-populous nation in the world. And now, Virgin Hyperloop One and the Indian state of Maharashtra are partnering to build a separate high-speed track between the cities of Pune and Mumbai, with a stop at Mumbai International Airport. And most exciting of all, this latest partnership comes with a pledge to actually build a working test track.
The announcement from Virgin Hyperloop One, the main competitor of HTT, heats up the already highly competitive race to transport folks from Point A to Point B in a more efficient manner than currently possible. But as it stands, it looks like the two companies are focusing on different regions of the country.
HTT has spent the last few months working with India’s economic development board, where it will look into various routes to connect the cities of Vijayawada and Amaravati. While the cities are only 27 miles apart, it takes commuters around an hour to travel between the two cities. A hyperloop could reduce that to just six minutes.
“The project will involve little over $200 million of investment and take a year or so to complete it once all the approvals and Right of Way were in place,” Krishna Kishore, CEO of the state’s economic development board, told Economic Times.
On the other hand, the newly proposed track between Pune and Mumbai would reduce the travel time of the 100-mile journey from over three hours to around 25 minutes.
India is by no means the only non-U.S. country looking for a tube-based transportation system. HTT is already in talks with South Korea, Slovakia, and Abu Dhabi to build hyperloops in those nations as well. However, seeing as we still have not completely perfected a working prototype of a hyperloop system anywhere in the world, it will still be awhile before any of these countries enjoy this kind of transportation.
Updated on February 20: Hyperloop One is also looking to build a Hyperloop in India.
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