Hyperloop project being developed at IIT Madras will become world's longest: Vaishnaw

Chennai: The ambitious Hyperloop project under development at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras will feature the longest Hyperloop tube in Asia, measuring 410 meters, and is set to become the world’s longest soon, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Sunday.

The Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, and Information Technology, who was on a short visit to the city, inspected the Hyperloop project at IIT Madras on March 15.

He stated that the electronics component technology for the Hyperloop project would be developed at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai.

"Longest Hyperloop tube in Asia (410 meters)... soon to be the world's longest @iitmadras," Vaishnaw said in a social media post on Sunday, sharing a video of his visit to the IIT Madras campus.

Hyperloop is considered the fifth mode of transportation—a high-speed train that travels in a near-vacuum tube. The reduced air resistance allows the capsule inside the tube to reach speeds of over 1,000 km per hour.

The entire testing system for Hyperloop transportation has been developed using indigenous technologies, and India is expected to be ready for Hyperloop transportation soon, as tests conducted so far have yielded promising results, he said.

In May 2022, the Ministry of Railways approved an allocation of Rs 8.34 crore to IIT Madras to indigenously develop and validate the Hyperloop transportation system and its subsystems.