'Looping' into the future

Richard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop One has signed a deal with the Maharashtra government to build the magnetic levitation concept transportation mode from Mumbai to Pune via Navi Mumbai airport. This futuristic mode of carrying people and cargo was first envisaged in 2012 by the visionary Elon Musk, who was bidding to link Los Angeles and San Francisco. Since then, the concept has caught on so much that the Hyperloop is being thought of as an environmentally-friendly mode that could possibly link several pairs of cities worldwide. The first experimental track or tube is being built in the Nevada desert outside Las Vegas. It’s fair to say we should keep our fingers crossed on this novel tech, hoping it would catch on universally and prove itself an even better mass transportation solution than the bullet train.

There’s no question that the super-speed Hyperloop, with pods travelling at nearly 1,000 kmph, will cut travel time and enable many trips daily at an economical cost, besides speed of construction, with the Mumbai-Pune line to be ready by, say, 2021. However, the costs are at best an estimate, while ballpark figures place them far higher than what the promoters claim. The loop’s per-mile cost could be up to $11.5 million from LA to the Bay Area, or even $52 million per mile from Dubai to Abu Dhabi — if so, the Hyperloop could possibly beat all others to the starting gate. Right now, all this sounds too fanciful, and its effect on the environment hasn’t been fully measured yet. But if Mumbai-Pune, Chennai-Bengaluru and Delhi-Mumbai via Indore can become a reality some day, we’ll have to thank dreamers like Musk and Branson for making it possible.