Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw sanctioned an Rs 8.34 crore collaborative initiative on Hyperloop Technology, proposing a high-speed transportation system with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras.

The Ministry of Railways' clearance follows the submission of the research proposal by IIT Madras for teaming with the Indian Railways to indigenously design and validate the Hyperloop technology-based transportation system and its subsystems. The partnership is also for establishing a Centre of Excellence for Hyperloop Technology at the institute - all at a total estimated expenditure of Rs 8.34 crore.

The Minister who visited IIT Madras watched a demonstration of the Hyperloop pod model designed by the IIT students at the New Academy Complex. At the Research Park, he saw the 5G testbed demonstration and later reviewed the IIT-M Incubation Cell, which is India's top Deeptech Startup hub.

Hyperloop is the 5th mode of transportation, a high-speed train that traverses in a near-vacuum tube. The reduced air resistance permits the capsule inside the tube to gain speeds of more than 1,000 km per hour.

A group of students from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Team Avishkar Hyperloop is working on the emerging Hyperloop-based transportation solutions domain for the futuristic commuting experience. The model presented by Team Avishkar can attain a top speed of over 1,200 kilometres per hour. It is totally autonomous, safe, and clean, the Railways said.

Team Avishkar is striving to create the world's largest student-developed Hyperloop testing facility at IIT Madras and is expecting to finish the construction of this 500-metre long Hyperloop facility at Discovery Campus by this year.

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