India's First Hyperloop Test Track Set Up By IIT Madras Completed In Chennai | Watch
The Ministry of Railways had been working with IIT Madras to establish India's "indigenous" hyperloop system for a high-speed transportation system.
India has long envisioned creating its very own hyperloop infrastructure, a high-speed transformation system that can transform the Railways experience to enable travel at aeroplane-like speeds. In this regard, India’s first hyperloop test track set up by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras has been successfully completed in Chennai.
Sharing visuals on X platform, Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw shared visuals of the 410-mile track, congratulating the Indian Railways, IIT Madras as well as Avishkar Hyperloop team and Tutr Hyperloop for the accomplishment.
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Watch: Bharat’s first Hyperloop test track (410 meters) completed.👍 Team Railways, IIT-Madras’ Avishkar Hyperloop team and TuTr (incubated startup)
📍At IIT-M discovery campus, Thaiyur pic.twitter.com/jjMxkTdvAd
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) December 5, 2024
IIT Madras-affiliated Hyperloop technology teams – Avishkar Hyperloop, a student team and Tutr Hyperloop, a startup incubated in the college, are working on the hyperloop project that can transform the travel experience to such an extent that passengers would be able to cover the 350 km distance between Chennai and Bengaluru in a mere 30 minutes.
Hyperloop works on a technology that would use magnetic levitation in low-pressure tubes to transport people and goods at airplane-like speeds. The low energy requirement and technological elements of this project can also aid India’s efforts in becoming carbon neutral.
“The Ministry of Railways was informed that a team comprising 70 students, named “Avishkar Hyperloop", formed by IIT Madras in 2017, has been applying scalability and frugal engineering concepts for development of Hyperloop based transportation system with an aim is to make India proud by showcasing its technologies to the world," the Railways Ministry said in May.
The Union Ministry of Railways and steel giant ArcelorMittal are also key partners in the project. ArcelorMittal and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India provided key materials and expertise to support the construction of the test track at the 163-acre Discovery campus of IIT Madras.
The central objective of the team is the advancement and commercialisation of Hyperloop technologies for high-speed, affordable, reliable, and sustainable transportation, according to a statement by ArcelorMittal.
The concept of hyperloop has been heavily promoted by Elon Musk and SpaceX. Notably, Avishkar Hyperloop had emerged as the only Asian team to feature in the top 10 global ranking at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2019 and was among the top three teams globally at the European Hyperloop Week 2023.
TuTr Hyperloop is a deep-tech startup operating from the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD), IIT Madras, in 2022 to carry forward the work done by CFI Team Avishkar and focus on commercialising hyperloop technologies.
IIT Madras had approached the Ministry of Railways in March 2022 with a proposal for collaborative work on the development of a contactless pod prototype and the development of a first-of-its-kind Hyperloop Test Facility at its Discovery Campus at Thaiyur. The estimated cost of the Project, as conveyed by IIT Madras, is Rs 8.34 crore. This facility can offer further research on Hyperloop by the Indian Railways.
The institute has also proposed to establish a “Centre of Excellence for Hyperloop Technologies" at IIT Madras through the existing Centre of Railway Research, located in the MSRC building of IIT Madras.
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