New Delhi: Multi-billionaire tech mogul Elon Musk has been working on developing a revolutionary mode of transportation – hyperloops. The train-like passenger vehicle is conceptualized to move at high speed via sealed tubes, free of air and friction resistance hence sharply reducing travel times.

For the first time, the Hyperloop Pod contest, kick-started by Elon Musk in 2015, is set to be hosted in India at the Chennai campus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in July 2020.

On Wednesday, IIT Chennai said the competition would see international techies develop and present an efficient prototype of the technologies.

Back in 2019, a team called “Avishkaar” (invention) from IIT in Chennai emerged as the only Asian team to enter the finals of Elon Musk’s California-based contest. The team developed and showcased India’s first self propelled tube traveller and also got a chance to meet and interact with Musk.

​The teams that reach the finals of the Indian Hyperloop Pod Contest would have to build a fully functional prototype of their design for demonstration at the Hyperloop Test Track in the campus of IIT in Chennai.

This competition would allow three teams to run their Pods on an open-air track, which would eventually scale up to being enclosed in a vacuum tube.

India has been accelerating its efforts into bringing the environment friendly Hyperloop mode of transportation to the country.

Another Hyperloop transportation project is expected to be undertaken between the cities of Vijayawada and Amaravati in the south-eastern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh. This project is the only other one that has gone beyond the memorandum stage in India.

Another Hyperloop project is expected to begin operating in the UAE in 2020. Similar projects are reportedly underway in China and parts of Europe.