A symbolic image of the Hyperloop track.
India is now working fast to develop state-of-the-art transport facilities with the future in mind. In which, along with the bullet train, the name of the hyperloop track has also been included. Hyperloop is a high-speed train that will run inside the tube, its speed will cover a distance of 350 km in 30 minutes, so if you are going from Ahmedabad to Rajkot, it will take only 20 minutes. Currently, the track was started with a speed of 100 km per hour, which will be tested up to 600 km per hour in the upcoming tests. The project has already started in Europe.
Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has shared a video post on X regarding the Hyperloop track. In this post, he wrote that India's first hyperloop test track with a length of 410 meters is ready. Thanks to Team Railway and IIT Madras for this. In this post, he also showed a glimpse of the Hyperloop track. This test track will prove to be a major step towards India's high speed transportation, which could prove to be able to give the country a new identity on the global level in the field of hyperloop technology.
What is Hyperloop Track after all?
In simple terms, Hyperloop is a sophisticated transportation system, which provides the possibility of traveling at extremely high speeds through a special capsule in a vacuum tube. The Virgin Hyperloop was tested on 9 November 2020 in Las Vegas, USA with the pod on a 500 meter track. Its speed was 161 kilometers per hour.
Hyperloop is a high speed train, which runs in a vacuum in a tube. This technology is an invention of Elon Musk. Musk presented this idea to the world for the first time in 2013. The maximum speed of the Hyperloop train can go up to one thousand kilometers per hour. This is the reason why if everything goes well and the hyperloop train is launched in India, it will change the entire transport infrastructure of the country. However, this technology is still new and has a lot of work to do. Currently, the economic feasibility of this technology is also being studied.
What is special about Hyperloop track?
The core objective of the Hyperloop team is to create high-speed, affordable, reliable and sustainable transportation. The 410 m Hyperloop test track at the Discovery Campus of IIT Madras in Thayur was run for the first time at a speed of 100 kmph. Now the tests will proceed on a long track and from there they will accelerate to around 600 km/h.
If things go right, Hyperloop technology could change the way cities move and lead to new evolutions. Where hours of train travel can turn into minutes. The Ministry of Indian Railways has given a fund of Rs 8.34 crore for this project. If you want to understand the purpose of this technology, Hyperloop aims to cover (for example) the 215 km journey from Ahmedabad to Rajkot in 20 minutes.
The train will run inside this tube.
Who is developing this technology in India?
If we talk about the development of this technology in India, this testing track located at the Discovery Campus of IIT Madras has been built in partnership with Indian Railways, IIT Madras' Aviskar Hyperloop team and TuTr Hyperloop startup. The track was launched at a speed of 100 kmph and will be tested at a speed of 600 kmph in the upcoming tests.
The technology gained new momentum when tech billionaire Elon Musk announced new research into the technology in 2012. 76 students of IIT-Madras are working in this project. This project will be prepared in 2 phases. The first phase will involve construction of 11.5 km track. After the necessary tests are completed, the second phase will be started to cover the remaining route of about 100 km.
This train will reach the last stop directly and will not stop at any intermediate station like other trains.
How many people can travel at a time?
The top speed of the Hyperloop train is proposed to be 1100 km per hour, while the operating speed of the system is proposed to be 360 km per hour or 100 meters per second. Hyperloop is a very high speed transportation system, which will ensure high speed movement of pods. This pod can accommodate approximately 24-28 people at a time. However, this train will reach the last stop directly and will not stop at any station in between like other trains.
Why is it so important for India?
Hyperloop is said to be the technology of the future, so its arrival in India could not only transform the Indian transport system, but also prove to be an environment-friendly and very economical mode. Along with this, adopting it as a mode of transportation can also create many new employment opportunities in India. Overall, this could prove to be very beneficial for India.
The pod will accommodate approximately 24-28 people at a time.
This technology is being used in Europe
Hyperloop technology is being used in many countries of the world. The longest hyperloop test track in Europe has opened. Its operators say the facility will better define the need for Hyperloop in front of the public in the future. It is being said that a total of 10,000 km long Hyperloop network will be developed around Europe by the year 2050.
Elon Musk first gave this idea
Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world, is known for his innovative ideas. Hyperloop was also his idea. He floated the idea in 2013, during which he proposed a trial run on a line connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles. He believed that we should work on developing a transportation system that would go faster than flight on Earth. Which takes minimum time to transport people from one place to another.
Image Credit: (Divya-Bhaskar): Images/graphics belong to (Divya-Bhaskar).
