DUBAI // The routes, financials and environmental impact of the proposed hyperloop link between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain will be submitted to authorities after Ramadan, laying the groundwork for the high-speed transport network.
“We are not talking about different cities any more because the distance can be reached in 9 to 13 minutes,” said Bibop Gresta, chairman and co-founder of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies who met Abu Dhabi authorities and companies on the feasibility study.
“We have been working for four months with the Government of Abu Dhabi and our local engineers to deliver the first full-scale feasibility study to build a hyperloop system between Abu Dhabi and Al Ain. We will need to do some fine tuning to the study to present the data and announce the results after Ramadan.”
The project conceptualises covering the 145 kilometres between the two cities in fewer than 13 minutes.
The 28-passenger capsules will move at speeds of more than 1,200 kilometres per hour within a sealed tube powered by magnetic propulsion and using solar energy.
Sheikh Falah bin Zayed signed a partnership agreement with the Los Angeles-based company in January. This followed an agreement in November with Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipal Affairs and Transportation.
The hyperloop company is also in contact with firms that are part of the emirate’s masterplan to improve infrastructure.
“The pod has 28 people right now but we can design different kinds of pods. We have been interacting with the government municipality affairs (section) and with several players in the region to actually understand the impact of a hyperloop and look at what Abu Dhabi will become after the masterplan is implemented,” Mr Gresta said.
While sceptics dismiss the transportation system, others believe it is the future.
“For this to be taking shape in this country is amazing. This could change how we view transport,” said Sulaiman Jaismi, manager of an Abu Dhabi engineering company.
Once a government grants approval, HTT said it would take three years for the first passenger network to be ready.
The company is also in talks with state governments in India.
“We have had a series of discussions with chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha and Goa. There are different sizes of pods we are looking at in India from 28, 30 or 40,” Mr Gresta said.
“India would probably be our big market and right now the closest to becoming a reality is Maharashtra (state) between Bombay and Pune.”
A full-scale test track is being built in France, he said, and grant aid was given to build a research and development centre.
The hyperloop concept to propel a magnetically-levitated pod through a near-vacuum tube was proposed in 2013 by American entrepreneur Elon Musk.
A rival firm, Hyperloop One, is in the UAE with an agreement with the Roads and Transport Authority to evaluate a system between Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
rtalwar@thenational.ae
