Site visitors, an ever-growing menace not simply in Bengaluru however internationally, has invited varied options, together with some from big-tech leaders. Founding father of Tesla, SpaceX, and different corporations, Elon Musk not too long ago unveiled his plan to construct the Dubai Loop, an extension of the Vegas Loop, to ease visitors congestion within the Emirati nation.
Whereas the loop progresses on one facet of the world, the idea of ‘hyperloop’, which was Musk’s authentic plan, is one thing IIT Madras has been actively pursuing over the previous few years. The intention stays the identical: sooner transportation.
However will it assist clear up India’s burgeoning visitors drawback?
What’s Elon’s Loop?
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) and Musk’s The Boring Firm (TBC) have signed an MoU to develop Dubai Loop, beginning with a 17 km pilot that includes 11 stations to move 20,000 passengers per hour.
Impressed by the Vegas Loop, the system will lengthen all through Dubai utilizing eco-friendly electrical automobiles. It goals to shorten journey instances, enhance capability to 100,000 passengers per hour, and align with the Dubai Clear Power Technique 2050.
Musk just about made the announcement on the latest World Governments Summit in Dubai.
Asserting Dubai Loop.
In partnership with the @rta_dubai, TBC is worked up to announce Dubai Loop. @boringcompany want to thank The Crown Prince of Dubai @HamdanMohammed and the Chairman of the RTA. pic.twitter.com/83kyuET44i— The Boring Firm (@boringcompany) February 13, 2025
Based by Musk in 2016, TBC initially got down to develop hyperloop, a futuristic high-speed transport system utilizing near-vacuum tubes to eradicate air resistance and allow ultra-fast journey. Nonetheless, on account of technical challenges, excessive infrastructure prices, and security issues, the corporate shifted focus to the extra sensible and scalable different of loop.
Not like the hyperloop, which requires vacuum-sealed tubes, a loop is a community of underground tunnels designed for Tesla automobiles, providing quick, congestion-free city transport at common atmospheric stress.
The Vegas Loop, at present beneath improvement, will span 110 km and have 104 stations. It’ll ultimately transport 90,000 passengers per hour throughout town. At the moment, the operational Las Vegas Loop covers about 2.7 km and effectively connects key areas of the conference centre.
Will Musk Deliver Loop to India?
Throughout Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest go to to the US, Musk met with him to debate varied matters, together with area, mobility, AI and innovation. Tesla goes to start operations in India and not too long ago uploaded job postings for India operations.
Musk’s satellite tv for pc communication firm, Starlink, can also be trying to begin operations in India, presumably to tackle Jio. These are solely a sign of Musk’s plans to set a powerful foothold in India. Probably, sooner or later, Musk would possibly strike a partnership with the federal government to deliver the loop system to India.
Whereas Musk made a fast shift for sensible causes, the Avishkar Hyperloop challenge, a student-run initiative began in 2017 at IIT Madras as a part of the Middle for Innovation (CFI), was impressed by Musk’s Hyperloop.
IIT’s Tryst with Hyperloop
In an unique interplay, Prateek Sharma, a former staff lead and final-year pupil at IIT Madras, informed AIM: “This can be a new expertise and a sustainable one. However what’s stopping it from changing into a actuality is the expertise that we at present have.”
To display feasibility, Avishkar Hyperloop constructed a 400-metre take a look at monitor at IIT Madras’ Discovery Campus. “One of many first steps was to construct a tube. By constructing the 400-metre tube, we gave a proof of idea {that a} skinny tube with some modification can face up to the stress that we wish to run the hyperloop pod in,” mentioned Sharma.
Watch: Bharat’s first Hyperloop take a look at monitor (410 meters) accomplished.
Staff Railways, IIT-Madras’ Avishkar Hyperloop staff and TuTr (incubated startup)
At IIT-M discovery campus, Thaiyur pic.twitter.com/jjMxkTdvAd
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) December 5, 2024
As promising because it sounds, the Hyperloop challenge faces many hurdles, one thing that Musk realised a decade in the past. The primary challenges lie in warmth dissipation and passenger security. “The issue is, how will you dissipate the warmth out of your system, which is operating inside a vacuum?” requested Sharma.
The staff has been exploring thermal cooling utilizing phase-changing supplies, however the expertise will not be totally scalable but.
Past engineering hurdles, the hyperloop should show its financial and environmental viability. Whereas initially thought of a sustainable different, Sharma acknowledges, “There is no such thing as a concrete analysis to again that time period [Hyperloop] whether it is sustainable or not.”
But, the potential advantages for India’s passenger and freight transport are substantial. “If we construct a hyperloop hall from Chennai to Bengaluru, the time taken will be decreased by an element of 10,” he famous.
With India’s overcrowded railways and rising city congestion, he believes, “A populous nation like India wants it probably the most since even our long-distance trains run overcrowded.”
In the meantime, the International Hyperloop Competitors (GHC) 2025 has begun at IIT Madras’ Discovery Campus on twenty first Feb, that includes 10 Hyperloop groups, 200 pupil innovators, and 150+ business consultants.
Whereas Avishkar Hyperloop has secured funding from IIT Madras, Indian Railways, Daimler, and Tube Investments of India, scaling the expertise requires extra funding and infrastructure breakthroughs.
With The Boring Firm pushing the loop as a sensible resolution and IIT Madras working to make the hyperloop viable, the way forward for high-speed transport in India stays an open race.
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