IIT Madras, in collaboration with the Ministry of Railways, has developed India's first Hyperloop test track. The track is 422 meters long and on it the high-speed train can travel inside an almost vacuum tube at a speed of over 1,000 kilometers per hour.

"Collaboration between the government and academia is promoting innovation in future transportation," Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw wrote in a post on X.

Take a look at the post:

The Hyperloop track showed that you can travel about 350 kilometers in just 30 minutes. This means that if used in real life, people can travel from Delhi to Jaipur, which is about 300 kilometers, in less than half an hour.

"The first pod of 422 meters will go a long way in the development of the technology," Vaishnav said. "I think now the time has come when after the first two grants of one million dollars, a third grant of one million dollars will be given to IIT Madras to take the Hyperloop project forward."

He also mentioned that the Indian Railways will launch the first commercial project once the technology is fully tested and ready.

The hyperloop project at @iitmadras; Government-academia collaboration is driving innovation in futuristic transportation. pic.twitter.com/S1r1wirK5o

— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) February 24, 2025

"We will decide a site which can be used for good commercial transportation, say around 4,050 kilometers," he said. The project involves trains traveling at speeds up to Mach 1 inside special capsules in a vacuum tube, which was funded by the Railway Ministry and built on the IIT Madras campus.

For reference, Mach 1 is a speed of about 761 miles per hour or 1,224.71 kilometers per hour.

The reason these trains will reach such high speeds is that they will be part of an electromagnetically levitating pod inside a vacuum tube, which eliminates the friction from traditional rails and air drag.