CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -In February, Fadnavis signed an MoU with Richard Branson’s Virgin Hyperloop One to build the Mumbai-Pune track. While Dhavse refuses to give cost estimates for the whole project, the demo track, the initial 15km stretch proposed near Wakad, Pune, is expected to cost roughly ₹ 3, 000 crore. Virgin will foot this bill.

Detailed explanation-2: -The first phase of the project is 11.8-km-long and will cost $500 million or ₹3, 550 crore. Virgin Hyperloop One will make the investment for the first phase with the backing of DP World, Dubai. The second phase will cost over $8 billion or ₹57, 000 crore.

Detailed explanation-3: -It takes the annual passenger load anywhere between 5 million and 8.2 million, depending upon the number of daily operational hours. At the present costing, a ticket could be priced at ₹4, 000 for a one-way trip, but then this is before “cost optimisation”.

Detailed explanation-4: -Since 2017, the Centre of Innovation of IIT Madras has housed Avishkar Hyperloop, a 70-80-strong student project that has been steadily working to construct and test a prototype hyperloop vehicle. Part of the IIT Madras Avishkar Hyperloop team, with their scaled-down prototype.

Detailed explanation-5: -Hyperloop in India IIT Madras’s Avishkar Hyperloop which was formed in 2017 had been working on scalability and frugal engineering concepts for the development of a Hyperloop based transportation system for India.