State government to finalize a regulator for the Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project.

The hyperloop project of Pune-Mumbai still needs to find a regulator who is able to control its construction, safety measures as it is going to become the world’s first operational hyperloop. In 2018, Maharashtra approved a proposed high-speed line between Mumbai and Pune for Virgin Hyperloop One-led consortiums that would reduce the time from 3.5 hours to 25-30 minutes.

It is part of the new transport mode, so it is both train and air travel; and the final regulator is the subject of discussions and state sources, even as it is expected that the state government will invite offers for the proposal.

The 150-km long Pune-Mumbai line will run from the BKC commercial centre in Mumbai to Wakad in Pune. The plan also provides for the operation of the test track for hyperloop between Gahunje and Ozarde by 2026.

“The discussion is on the regulator and it has still to be concluded,” a senior central government official said.

In August this years the state government considered hyperloop as the first hyperloop project in the world and acknowledged hyperloop technology along with other more traditional forms of mass transit.

The Virgin Hyperloop One-DP World (VHO-DPW) Consortium is accepted as the original Project Proponent by the state government, and it is completing the request for proposal and is scheduled to accept bids for the RFP under the MahaIdea act.

The hyperloop requires the construction of an almost complete vacuum tube or tunnels, a bridge and a vehicle that floats on a magnetic levitation over the railway track. Government officers said that there is a panel set up on the basis of the Technology, the due diligence of a Principal Scientific Advisor’s Office and whether it should have a cross-functional group of regulators or a single ministry. The perception is that a body that has the expertise and background to recognize these new areas should regulate this.