Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop Project Unlikely Before Successful Trial Abroad: Maharashtra Government

Proposed Mumbai-Pune Hyperloop project, deemed as the world’s fastest transportation system, will not be implemented in Maharashtra before successful trial abroad, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar said on Friday. Pawar said that the state government will consider the futuristic transport system only after it is proved to be practicable in other countries.

"Hyperloops have never been constructed anywhere in the world until now, so let this be tried somewhere else before us. Once it is successful, then we can think of it," Pawar said after conducting a review meeting with officials in Pune.

The earlier BJP-led government had announced that the Hyperloop would be built between Pune and Mumbai which will reduce the travel time between the two cities drastically. When asked about the project, Pawar, who also holds the finance portfolio, said it has not been implemented anywhere in the world yet. "Let it happen somewhere else. Let it become successful for at least a 10 km distance somewhere abroad," he said.

Asked if the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress government in the state was thinking of scrapping the project, Pawar said he did not say so. “We do not have the capacity to experiment with Hyperloop. We will concentrate on other modes of transport and in the meantime, if that technology develops more with successful trials abroad, we can think about it,” he said.

Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk mentioned the Hyperloop concept in 2012. It contemplates a system of sealed tubes through which a pod may travel free of air resistance at great speeds.