Hyperloop looks to build super-fast transportation system in India

US technology start-up Hyperloop Technologies Inc, which is building a super-fast transportation solution based on an idea by billionaire Elon Musk, is in initial talks with the government and companies in India to build and operate the revolutionary transportation system on some routes, its chief executive officer said.

Hyperloop is a new and yet safer way to move people and things at airline speeds for the price of a bus ticket and it is energy-efficient, the company claims.

The Los Angeles-based company, known as Hyperloop One, is engaged in a feasibility study to run the vehicle in India, Rob Llyod said in an interview in New Delhi. The company will locally source a significant part of the components including steel if it decides to move ahead with the plan.

India, with the world's second-biggest population and seventh-biggest land mass, is an attractive market for Hyperloop. For India, which is struggling with infrastructure bottlenecks that impede rapid urbanisation. The Hyperloop offers an attractive transportation model.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to spend a record Rs396,000 crore ($59 billion) to build and modernise its railways, airports and roads, as the country seeks to improve its facilities to attract companies to invest in the country.

''India turns out to be a massive opportunity obviously for the concept of Hyperloop, which is why there's so much interest,'' said Llyod, who's in the country for discussions with the government. ''We want to align the stakeholders to actually find a route that makes sense, to do the detailed engineering, do the work on financing that route, think about a public-private partnership.''

Hyperloop is working on technology that would use magnetic levitation in low-pressure tubes to transport people and goods at airplane-like speeds.

''The market itself makes a lot of sense,'' Llyod said, ''Our analysis says that between Middle-East, India and parts of the US, with a renewed focus on infrastructure, those are logically places where it could happen.''

Hyperloop One at its Vision for India event today discussed how the high-speed transportation system could help in transportation in India.

The event, as expected, saw presence of chief guest Suresh Prabhu, minister of railways, and keynote speaker Amitabh Kant, CEO of NITI Aayog, at the event. The company claims Hyperloop can "reinvent and transform transportation in India" by connecting major cities at "faster-than-airline speeds".

Though the Hyperloop concept proposed in 2013 has seen much interest, Hyperloop One claims to be the only company that is building a functional Hyperloop system, and successfully demonstrated propulsion motor in May 2016. The company also confirmed that it will have world's first full-system test this year in Nevada.

Hyperloop One at its Vision For India summit also revealed five semi-finalist teams from India from it's Hyperloop One Global Challenge (HOGC). Under the global challenge, teams were tasked to propose high-speed transportation routes and develop regional proposals integrating Hyperloop One's transport technology to move passengers and freight from point-to-point.

Further, the company detailed that the Hyperloop One Global Challenge was kicked off in May last year, and saw over 2,600 registrants from 90 countries. Hyperloop One claimed that it received highest number of registrations from India for its Global Challenge.

Hyperloop One revealed India semi-finalists, which included AECOM which proposed Bengaluru-to-Chennai route which is 334 kilometres in just 20 minutes. The LUX Hyperloop Network proposed Bengaluru-to-Thiruvananthapuram route of 736 kilometres in 41 minutes.

Hyperloop One had in January disclosed a list of locations around the world vying to put near-supersonic rail transit system to the test, which included Delhi and Mumbai from India. The Dinclix GroundWorks proposed Delhi-to-Mumbai route via Jaipur and Indore which is 1,317 kilometres in 55 minutes. Other teams and locations include Hyperloop India which came with Mumbai-to-Chennai via Bengaluru route measuring 1,102 kilometres in just 50 minutes, and Infi-Alpha which proposed Bengaluru to Chennai route of 334 km in 20 minutes.

Hyperloop One and the United Arab Emirates are on the fast track to building the first commercial hyperloop transportation system from Dubai to Abu Dhabi.

The journey is 99 miles (159.4 km) long and normally takes about two hours by car but H1 promises it would take a mere 12 minutes in the hyperloop.

H1 is partnering with the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) to evaluate the feasibility of building this system in greater Dubai and the UAE and the announcement follows the next stage of development for the company, which is gearing up for its ''Kitty Hawk'' moment early next year when H1 will test a full-scale prototype of its system in the Nevada desert.