- The Maharashtra government has designated Hyperloop as a public infrastructure project, and the Virgin Hyperloop-DP World Consortium has been accepted as the initial project proponent for the Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop.
- NITI Ayog also approved six new concepts for India’s public transportation system.
- Metrino, stadler buses, hyper loop, pod taxis, hybrid buses, and freight train are examples of these technologies.
Concept:
It’s a mode of transportation in which a pod-like vehicle is driven through a near-vacuum tube connecting cities at aircraft-like speeds.
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, is the brains behind the hyperloop concept. According to Hyperloop Transport Technology (HTT), a hyperloop system costs $40 million per kilometre to develop, while a high-speed train line costs nearly twice as much. The hyperloop system will convey both passengers and freight.
How it operates?
Custom-designed capsules or pods are projected to zip smoothly through continuous steel tubes held under partial vacuum in hyperloop transportation. Air caster skis support the pod, which sandwiches the passenger compartment between an air compressor up front and a battery compartment in the back.
The skis float on a thin layer of air under high pressure, which eliminates rolling resistance and allows the pods to move at fast speeds. These capsules will be self-driving and capable of speeds of 1,000 km/h. The pod’s speed is controlled by linear induction motors installed along the tube. The capsule’s speed is determined through electronic-assisted acceleration and braking.
The Problems Plaguing the Hyperloop:
It would be an engineering feat in and of itself to build a tube hundreds of kilometres long. However, introducing a hundreds-of-kilometer-long tube that functions at near-perfect vacuum and can handle the force of a capsule weighing thousands of kilos while travelling at hundreds of kilometres per hour is nothing short of science fiction.
Small-scale experiments show that the idea’s principles are good. In the real world, however, there are far too many variables that a small scale design cannot account for. Tens of thousands of kilogrammes of atmospheric pressure threaten to crush any vacuum chamber in the actual world.
There’s also the issue of thermal expansion, which can cause any huge building to buckle if it doesn’t have the right thermal expansion capacities. In addition, the Hyperloop would be prohibitively expensive. The Hyperloop faces a slew of inevitable issues that jeopardise the structure’s integrity as well as every human life on board. The issues can be solved, but at a high expense.
Advantages:
Hyperloop claims to be two to three times faster than the fastest high-speed rail and even faster than commercial air travel.
In comparison to trains, it has a smaller civil engineering impact and produces no direct emissions or noise.
The capital cost per mile of the Hyperloop system is 60 percent less than that of high-speed rail, and it is also less expensive to run.
In addition, Hyperloop departures could occur at a low frequency of one pod every 20 seconds, which is not conceivable with trains.
Challenges:
It necessitates large investments, and thus efficient public-private sector collaboration is required for implementation.
In comparison to railways, it consumes a lot of energy.
Its progress may be hampered by technical difficulties and mishaps.
Need:
Current levels of urban mobility are already causing a slew of issues, including heavy traffic, pollution, and road fatalities.
The current transportation system prioritises automobile mobility over human mobility.
Because of the over-reliance on various modes of urban transportation, between 30 and 60 percent of a metropolitan area may be allocated to transportation.
The plan would address all aspects of urban mobility, including parking policies, congestion pricing, and transit-oriented development.