Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar | Photo Credit: ANI

Key Highlights Ajit Pawar said that the hyperloop technology has not been developed anywhere in the world and let it be implemented by someone else first then Maharashtra govt will work on it The proposed hyperloop project would have cut short travel time between Pune and Mumbai to 35 minutes

Mumbai: Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday asserted that the proposed hyperloop project connecting Pune and Mumbai might be stalled for the foreseeable future. Expressing apprehensions over the project, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader said that let the hyperloop technology be implemented somewhere else in the world, then the government will mull over going ahead with it.

The project had created a buzz when it was announced by the previous BJP-led government in August last year. The hyperloop project was expected to cut short the travel time between Pune and Mumbai to just 35 minutes.

While speaking over the Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project, Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar says, "Hyperloop has never been constructed anywhere in the world till now, so let this be tried somewhere else before us. Once it is successful, then we can think of it."

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project: Hyperloop has never been constructed anywhere in the world till now, so let this be tried somewhere else before us. Once it is successful, then we can think of it. pic.twitter.com/CY2ELMbEWB — ANI (@ANI) January 17, 2020

The announcement by the Deputy CM has come as a shock to many as the Maharashtra government had only approved the Virgin Hyperloop One-DP World consortium as the "Original Project Proponent" (OPP) for the Pune-Mumbai hyperloop project in August last year.

The project was deemed a public infrastructure by the state government and would have been the first hyperloop project in the world. It was expected to generate thousands of jobs and over $36 billion in various socio-economic benefits.

While announcing the project in August last year, then Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis had said, "Maharashtra will create the first hyperloop transportation system in the world and a global hyperloop supply chain starting from Pune. Maharashtra and India are at the forefront of hyperloop infrastructure building now and this is a moment of pride for our people."