Amitabh Kant, chief executive officer of Niti Aayog, said on Tuesday that he would be happy to work in partnership with Hyperloop One, the company that is trying to revolutionise transportation by making people travel at 700 miles per hour.
"The process of urbanisation has just begun in India, unlike in the west where it has somewhat stopped now. For technologies like this, the market is not the US or Europe but countries with larger population like India," said Kant at 'Vision for India', an event hosted by Hyperloop One.
The company has been trying to woo the India government for the past few months to build an ultra-high speed travel network in the country. Hyperloop works on a technology that uses magnetic levitation in low-pressure tubes to transport people and goods at airplane-like speeds. Apparently, the company has raised about $200 million from investors.
If it gets approval, it will be a completely 'Make in India' project as the company will source and manufacture components locally, said Rob Lloyd, board member, Hyperloop One.
The original idea of Hyperloop came from Tesla founder Elon Musk.
While a full Hyperloop is not functional anywhere, the company will run its first full-system test in Nevada this year. Simultaneously, it is working with countries such as Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Dubai to do pre-feasibility studies. In Finland and Sweden, it is conducting a study on connecting Helsinki with Stockholm. Hyperloop is expected to come to Dubai by 2020.
After getting approvals for the pre-feasibility studies, it could take anywhere between four and six years for a Hyperloop to come up. The cost of setting it up is estimated to be around $20-40 per kilometre.
The high-speed travel technology is expected to not only reduce travelling time but also help tackle the challenge of migration and urbanisation.
Bullish about India, Hyperloop CEO Sherwin Pishewar said the largest number of contributions for Hyperloop One's global challenge came from the country.
