The Indian State of Maharashtra has announced their intent to build a Virgin Hyperloop between Pune and Mumbai, beginning with an operational demonstration track. Sir Richard Branson, billionaire tycoon and Chairman of of Virgin Hyperloop, made the announcement at an event in India. Also read: Dubai to Abu Dhabi in 12 minutes - How it really works "It was an honour to have Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, alongside us as we signed a Framework Agreement for the project. The hyperloop route would link central Pune, Navi Mumbai International Airport, and Mumbai in 25-minutes and connect 26 million people. "Supporting 150 million passenger trips per year, it would help create a thriving, competitive megaregion." The billionaire visionary hoped that Hyperloop One could transform India into a global transportation pioneer. Also read: This is what UAE's Hyperloop will look like "As Virgin Hyperloop One Chairman, I'm incredibly excited about the potential to truly transform not just transportation, but wider society. Virgin Hyperloop One can help India become a global transportation pioneer and forge a new world-changing industry. As our team's studies have found, the Pune-Mumbai route could result in $55 billion (Dh202billion; INR 350,000 crores) in socio-economic benefits, time savings, accident reduction and operational cost savings, over 30 years of operation."
The high-capacity passenger and cargo hyperloop system is expected to create tens of thousands of jobs, helping to attract new business and investment in the region. The 100 per cent electric, efficient system will also ease severe expressway congestion and could reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 86,000 tons over 30 years.
"I believe Virgin Hyperloop One could have the same impact upon India in the 21st century as trains did in the 20th century. The Pune-Mumbai route is an ideal first corridor as part of a national hyperloop network that will dramatically reduce travel times between most of India's major cities to under two hours," he added. Excited about what the future holds for Hyperloop One, Branson said: "Virgin Hyperloop One is the only company in the world that has built a fully operational Hyperloop system. I have been fortunate to visit the wonderful team and see them in action at our fully operational test site in Nevada, working hard to make hyperloop a reality. I'm excited to see what's next."
'My life would be spent in India's traffic'
Talking to the media after the launch of the much talked about Hyperloop project in India, the billionaire tycoon that being stuck in India's traffic was not a pleasant experience - and how had he been an Indian, his life would have been spent sitting in traffic jams. "I have sat in Indian traffic every time I have come here, it's not a pleasant experience, and if I were an Indian a lot of my life would have been spent sitting in traffic jams. This is a miserable way of spending one's life." Here's a tweet from last year, when Branson was stuck in India's traffic jam:
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