HIGH ON THE HYPERLOOP

India is betting on student-led innovation to crack Hyperloop technology—aiming not just to catch up, but to lead the global race for next-gen high-speed mobility

- AVISHEK G. DASTIDAR

Glinting in the summer sun amid the lush green expanse of the sprawling Discovery campus at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in Chennai is a 422-metre-long metallic tube. Inside it lies an idea, one that a team of students is developing which could hasten India's journey towards Viksit Bharat.

This is the Avishkar Hyperloop, India's most ambitious shot at joining the elite group of nations racing to make vacuum tube-based ultra-high-speed transportation a reality. It's a government-supported, academia-led effort placing young engineers at the heart of a mass-mobility experiment. Since 2022, the Modi government has pumped in over Rs 30 crore into the project, the latest tranche arriving this February. Spearheaded by the railway ministry under Ashwini Vaishnaw, the plan is to build an ultra-long Hyperloop test track of 40 to 50 km, a scale no other country has attempted. It’s a bold leap: to set global benchmarks in propulsion, levitation, safety and cost efficiency.

So, what exactly is the Hyperloop? Imagine stepping into a pod roughly the size of a hatchback car, which accelerates inside a sealed vacuum tube to speeds approaching 1,200 km per hour, far faster than a commercial jet. That's the promise. But how is it done? With the air removed, the vacuum tube eliminates drag. Electromagnetic levitation lifts the pod off the surface, and a linear electric motor provides thrust. The result? A near-frictionless glide at breathtaking velocity. “We are constructing a sub-scale passenger cabin, a concrete tube rather than a steel tube, which is going to ensure over 80 per cent cost savings,” says Prem Mukkannavar, a third-year civil engineering student. “We are also working on a pioneering end-to-end booster-cruiser technology.”