India unlikely to have hyperloop trains in near future: NITI member V K Saraswat
India is unlikely to go in for hyperloop technology for ultra high-speed trains in the near future as the technology is at a 'very low level' of maturity and may not be economically viable at the current juncture, NITI Aayog Member V K Saraswat said on Sunday. Saraswat, who is heading a committee to explore the technological and commercial viability of the Virgin Hyperloop technology, further said some foreign companies have shown interest to bring the technology in India.
«Hyperloop technology as far as we are concerned, we found that the offer which came from foreign countries are not very viable options.
They are at a very low level of maturity of technology,» he told PTI in an interview.
Hyperloop is a high-speed train, running in vacuum in a tube. The technology is proposed Elon Musk, who is behind electric car company Tesla and commercial space transport company SpaceX.
«So we have not given much importance to that and as on today, it is only a study programme. I don't expect hyperloop to enter into our transportation framework in the near future,» he said.
The Virgin Hyperloop test run was conducted on November 9, 2020, on a 500-metre track in Las Vegas in the US with a pod, as the hyperloop vehicles are called, travelling with passengers, including an Indian, inside an enclosed tube at more than 161 km/hr.
