Top News

The most accessible and cheapest means of public transport in India is train. Metro train is limited to big cities and in small cities state buses are the only important support. In such a situation, new methods are discovered from time to time. Many times, many new transport modes are initially successful but face problems in getting them off the ground. At present, preparations for many such transport modes are going on in India. Prominent among these are Hyper Loop, Hydrogen Train, Air Taxi and Pod Taxi.

At present, apart from metro, other means of transport like rapid rail, mono rail and water taxi are being operated in the new India. In addition, work on the first bullet train line is ongoing. Projects like hydrogen-powered trains, air taxis, pod taxis and hyper loops are still under testing and their future is not certain. Let us know about the challenges facing these projects and their future.

hyper loop

A trial of this project to transport people in a tube through Hyper Loop technology was conducted in the year 2020. Then a company named Virgin had brought this project named ‘Hyperloop One’ and its trial started with great enthusiasm. Its speed could have been around 1127 kilometers per hour. If this project had been successful and people could have been sent at this speed, the journey from Delhi to Mumbai would have been completed in less than one and a half hours. In 2022, this company talked about sending goods instead of people and by 2023, it was announced that this project would be closed.

The Maharashtra government had also approved the Hyper Loop project in 2019 itself. Lipper Loop was to be constructed between Mumbai-Pune with an investment of Rs 35 billion. When the government changed in between, the matter went completely cold. When Devendra Fadnavis returned to power in 2024, discussion on this started again. The central government gave the green signal to this project. However, the speed which was earlier expected to be around 1200 kilometers per hour, has now been said to be 600 kilometers per hour between Mumbai and Pune. It was said that the journey between Mumbai and Pune will be only 25 minutes.

On December 5, 2024, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav informed in a tweet that India’s first Hyperloop test track has been prepared at the Tayyur campus of IIT-Madras. Its length is only 410 meters. However, due to the closure of this project at the global level, many apprehensions are being raised regarding its completion and getting off the ground. This is the reason why its trial is now being conducted under the supervision of IIT-Madras. Till now, a project like Hyperloop has not been started anywhere in any country. In India also in February 2025, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav shared another video. It was seen that a device was seen moving on a track.

In March 2025, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said that now the Hyperloop project will be developed at the Integral Coach Factory, Chennai. He also expressed confidence that India will soon complete this project. However, the reality is that even after more than a decade, the Hyperloop project is still in the trial phase and there is no hope of its completion in the near future.

air taxi

Air taxi services have also been announced in many cities in India. In the month of February this year, it was announced to start air taxi in Delhi-NCR. It is proposed that Gurugram, Connaught Place and Jewar Airport will be connected through flying taxis. This plan has been prepared by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Such helicopters will be flown in this. At present, DGCA is making rules to this and this project is still in the planning phase.

Similarly, a company named Sarala Aviation has announced to run electric air taxi. Companies like IndiGo have also invested money in this company. However, this project is still in the planning phase.

pod taxi

Similarly, pod taxi has also been announced. It will have small electric trains which will run on elevated tracks. Recently, it has been announced to run pod taxi between Noida Film City and Jewar Airport. Pod taxi project in Mumbai has been approved and is to be constructed between Kurla and Bandra Kurla Complex. However, this project is also still in the planning phase.

Overall, apart from the already running rail and metro services in India, the Bullet Train project is the only one on which work is going on at a fast pace. According to the Railway Ministry, 70 percent work of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet Train Project has been completed. All the remaining transport mediums that have been announced so far are either in the planning phase or are currently being tested.