Andhra CM ponders Hyperloop for future transportation

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu never flips any project if it has tech advantage and in his bid to make the upcoming capital Amaravati unique and robust, he is pondering the possibility of Hyperloop transportation.

The blue print work is on to build India’s first Hyperloop transportation facility to connect Vijayawada with Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, covering 40-km distance that can be covered in just six minutes, if feasible.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies chairman Bibop Gresta said their technology is radically different from the existing one being tested in US and China.

"Our system uses a combination of renewable energy to generate more electricity than it consumes. This ensures affordable cost of construction and maintenance. The capsule can move at a very high speed consuming very little energy, making the system highly efficient," he told media on the sidelines of the ongoing CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam.

Hyperloop, a favorite of SpaceX Founder Elon Musk, is a future transportation technology that propels a pod-like vehicle through a near-vacuum tube at nearly 1,100 km per hour.

Last year, a Los Angeles-based company "Hyperloop One" had sent a proposal to conduct a feasibility study to construct five Hyperloop lines in India connecting — Bengaluru to Chennai (20 minutes), Mumbai to Chennai via Bengaluru (50 minutes), Bengaluru to Thiruvananthapuram, Mumbai to Delhi and Mumbai to Kolkata.

Since Andhra Pradesh is not included, Naidu has decided to make individual queries on the prospects of the new technology in Andhra Pradesh. Accordingly, the AP Economic Development Board and US-based Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) had signed an MoU last year.

"Once that (feasibility study) is done and if the Chief Minister gives us the go-ahead, we will be ready to roll out the project," Gresta said, adding that it would take five years to complete the project. Since Amaravati is located on the riverfront, it is the ideal place to build the Hyperloop project, he said.