A US-based firm developing a near-supersonic mode of onground passenger travel on Sunday signed an ‘intent agreement’ with Maharashtra to build a transport system between Mumbai and Pune which aims to bring down travel time between the two cities to 20 minutes from three hours.
“The hyperloop will reduce accidents. Teams are working to study the feasibility of the route,” Branson said. Officials said the final feasibility study may be completed in six months, and construction of a test track can start in early 2019 and finish by 2021-end. If the tests are successful, it would take about four years to build the entire Mumbai-Navi Mumbai-Pune track.
The estimated cost of the route is around Rs 20,000 crore, which officials say works out cheaper than other forms of high-speed on-ground travel.
VHO CEO Rob Lloyd said, “We have always believed that India would be a tremendous market for the hyperloop. The Pune-Mumbai route is one of the strongest economic cases we have seen to date.”
Officials said that under the agreement, the company will also look at potential routes and undertake preliminary studies to analyze the economic impact and technical viability of hyperloop transportation in India. The US-based company signed the Maharashtra agreement in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. Apart from Branson, also present were VHO investors Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem (CEO and group chairman of DP World), and Ziyavudin Magomedov (chairman of Summa Group).
The Pune-Mumbai route could result in $55 billion (Rs3.5 lakh crore) in socio-economic benefits (time savings, emissions cuts, accident reduction, operational cost savings, etc) over 30 years of operation, according to an initial pre-feasibility study by VHO. The 100% electric system will also ease expressway congestion.
“With VHO, we can create sustainable infrastructure that will enhance Maharashtra's competitiveness and attract new investment and businesses,” said Fadnavis. “The Pune-Mumbai hyperloop route will be an economic catalyst for the region and create tens of thousands of jobs for India’s worldclass manufacturing, construction, service, and IT sectors, and aligns with the Make in India initiatives.”
Source: Times of India
