Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister for Railways, Information and Broadcasting, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India, visited IIT Madras’ Hyperloop Facility, located at Discovery Satellite Campus in Thaiyur near Chennai.
He was accompanied by Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, Prof. Satya Chakravarthy, Faculty Advisor, Hyperloop IIT Madras, and other researchers.
The Railway Ministry, during May 2022, had approved an allocation of ₹8.34 crore to IIT Madras to indigenously develop and validate hyperloop transportation system and its subsystem.
Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw also interacted with ePlane, an IIT Madras-incubated start-up that aims to launch India’s First Flying Electric Taxi at Discovery. Further, the Hon’ble Minister also came to the main campus and interacted with Researchers working on SHAKTI Microprocessor as well as students from the Centre For Innovation (CFI), IIT Madras.
Congratulating IIT Madras on its cutting-edge innovations, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hon’ble Minister for Railways, said, “This place is so full of so much energy that I cannot describe it. I'm so happy to see young, energetic engineers working on this new technology and doing new experiments. We are providing only small help. I think that this will really lead us to some good solutions for the country, for our people, for our start-ups and for the world of technology as well.”
Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw added, “We will extend whatever support is needed. I am just a message away. I am the 72nd member of the Avishkar team. Let us be very focused on the quality, safety and how do we scale up this entire experiment once we do prototypes. Keep that ultimate goal in mind.”
Welcoming the Minister to IIT Madras, Prof. V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, said, “Hyperloop is undoubtably the next generation transportation technology that is sustainable, fast and cost-effective. IIT Madras is extremely grateful to the Hon’ble Minister of Railways for his continuous support to ensure the successful development of this technology.”