Remember The Jetsons and their flying pods?
Very soon, Mumbaites will also be able travelling to Pune in levitating pod-like vehicles. And traffic jams and air pollution will soon be a thing of past. At least that’s what Bibop Gabriele Gresta believes. He’s the co-founder of a company called Hyperloop Transportation Technology and wants to introduce this futuristic vehicle to India.
What’s Hyperloop, you ask? It’s a pod-like vehicle that can transport people through a near-vacuum tube at supersonic speeds!
Yeah, with our third-world problems, this is pretty difficult to believe.
But Bibop believes that he can change the entire transportation scenario in India. In fact, he has already met Nitin Gadkari, the current Minister of Road Transport and Highways of India, with a proposal to run Hyperloop between Mumbai and Pune.
As of right now, travelling between the two cities takes approximately 3 hours by road. Once these pods come into existence, it will take just 25 minutes.
Of all the places, why did he choose India?
Well, because “India is the perfect mix of high-density, lack of infrastructure and political willingness.” Of course, we are.
The company doesn’t even want government money to build the infrastructure. All they’re looking for is the land and approvals and they’ll kick start the project with assistance from private investors, some of whom have already shown interest.
One pod will leave every 30 seconds with each one carrying 28-40 passengers. Which means, one tube has the capacity of carrying 67,000 people a day. Just think of the potential!
Bye bye local trains.
Of course there are doubts about the feasibility of this project, but you’ll have to hand it to Hyperloop’s CEO for his confidence. If he gets a nod from the ministry, he says it’ll take 6-8 months to do the feasibility study and the project will be up and running in just 38 months.
That means 3 years from now, you can cruise to work in a near-vacuum tube! The best thing about the pods is time efficiency, not to mention the speed of 1200 km/hr, that can put every other mode of transport to shame.
Hyperloop is indeed a great leap forward and we can certainly expect to use it in near future. Fingers crossed!
