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Futuristic travel lab coming up in Bengaluru

Last Updated 07 December 2016, 03:33 IST
An overseas technology firm, working on a new mode of passenger and freight transportation at airline speeds at a cheap price, plans to set up a research and development centre in Bengaluru.

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT), established by California-based JumpStarter based on the technology envisioned by Tesla founder Elon Musk, is already in talks with the Ministry of Transport for land to test the technology.

HTT Chairman and Co-Founder Bibop G Gresta told this newspaper that there is an immediate requirement to de-humanise the transportation sector. “Bengaluru is one of the places on the planet where we can see a huge number of talent and thriving startup ecosystems. I would like to establish an R&D centre in Bengaluru and I am also looking for investors,” he said.

He pointed out that India has an amazing opportunity in the transportation sector because of three factors — density of population, scarcity of infrastructure and a growing demand for transportation. “Even though the government has decided to invest huge money on high-speed rail and traditional railways, I believe the money spent will not give enough returns,” he said. Gresta had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Silicon Valley and expressed his wish to join hands.

“I have already submitted a proposal to Minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari for land and (I’m) ready to do the rest once I get  permission. I assure you that HTT can transport people from Pune to Bengaluru in half an hour,” he said.

HTT is the largest company ever built upon a collaborative business ecosystem and coordinates with a team of over 600 professionals from 40 countries. It plans to come up with a new form of transport based on the principle of sending a vehicle at high-speed through an evacuated tube.

To encourage startups, he said HTT plans to launch Hyperloop Innovation Lab and Hyper Loop Academy in India. “We will launch a programme called Hyperloop Academy for India soon. People can submit their ideas and they can work with our engineers,” he said.

He said the company has right now 25 engineers working on the HTT project. “Lots of requests are coming from India. It is our crowd-sourcing initiative to our mothership project Hyperloop,” he said.

When asked about JumpStart Fund, Gresta said it has identified a few companies in the area of tube manufacturing, material design and engineering. “We have identified half a dozen startups and will reveal their names soon,” he said.
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(Published 06 December 2016, 21:00 IST)

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