Transporting a person in a pod that travels faster than sound has been the theme of many movies. Now, taking a leaf from Elon Musk’s hyperloop technology, two US firms are in the race. Hyperloop One is much closer to the finish line, and India is a strategic market on its map. The company intends to demonstrate its technology by March, with plans for its first commercial freight service in 2020 and passenger services a year later.

“Without any shadow of doubt, we believe that we will be the first to build hyperloop. We will deliver the first proof of technology within the first quarter of this calendar year itself and then we will deliver the proof of operations,” Nick Earle, Hyperloop’s Senior VP, Global Field Operations, told BusinessLine in an interaction. “This is a very capital intensive project, and we intend to raise the money and invest it,” he added.

Hyperloop is the brainchild of Tesla founder Musk, who open sourced the basic design in 2013 as a white paper, wherein passengers and goods placed in pods inside a partial-vacuum tube are transported at aircraft speeds. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies is also in the fray. It has crowd-sourced the funds to develop a transportation system.

India would not be the first country to get the technology, but Hyperloop One plans investments here. It has initiated talks with various State governments and some of the largest engineering and construction companies for partnerships.

“We have organised a Hyperloop Challenge. Based on the feedback, we will make our decisions,” said Alan James, VP Of Worldwide Business Development Passenger Systems at Hyperloop One.

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