Indian Railways, IIT-Madras To Collaborate On Rs 8.34 Cr Project On Hyperloop Technology

The Union Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw approved an Rs 8.34 crore collaborative initiative on Hyperloop Technology, proposing a high-speed transportation system with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, during his visit to the campus on May 19.

Hyperloop is a new system and the 5th mode of transportation that proposes using magnetic levitation technology in tubes to enable aeroplane-like speeds, reported India Today.

Railways And IIT-Madras' Collaboration

The approval follows the submission of the research proposal by the IIT-Madras to collaborate with the Indian Railways to indigenously develop and validate the Hyperloop technology-based transportation system and its subsystems.

The Railways will also be collaborating with the institute to set up a Centre of Excellence for Hyperloop Technology which is estimated to cost Rs 8.34 crore, reported The Indian Express.

Minister Visited The Campus

Vaishnaw, on Thursday, visited the institute and interacted with the Team Avishkar working on the Hyperloop pod model and watched a demonstration of the project at the New Academy Complex. He also saw the 5G testbed demonstration at the Research Park. Later, he inspected the IIT M Incubation Cell, India's leading Deeptech Startup hub.

Team 'Avishkar Hyperloop'

'Avishkar Hyperloop', a team of 70 students from the IIT, has been working on the emerging domain of the Hyperloop-based transportation solutions for a futuristic commuting experience since 2017. The proposed model can achieve a top speed of over 1,200 kilometres per hour.

The team aims to build the world's largest student-developed Hyperloop testing facility at IIT Madras. They are expecting to finish the construction of their 500-metre long Hyperloop facility at Discovery Campus, the Satellite campus of IIT-M located about 35 km from the main campus, by this year.

'Avishkar Hyperloop' had made it to the top-10 global ranking at the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition-2019 and became the only Asian team to do so. The project also achieved the 'Most Scalable Design Award' at the European Hyperloop Week – 2021.

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