India’s Very Own Personal Rapid Transit System: Pod Taxis To Become A Reality Thanks To Reliance, SkyTran

India will finally have their pod taxi as Reliance Industries Ltd (LTD) will finalise the site for the country’s first personal rapid transit driver-less transport system, according to the terms of deal between Reliance and SkyTran which was announced last week.

“As per the deal, the prototype will be built at the place decided by Reliance,” said one person, who was part of deal negotiations, requesting anonymity. The company will get into separate agreements with central and state governments to set up the required infrastructure according to the needs of the respective governments, according to reports.

“For the prototype, some bits will be imported from the US, while most of it will be made in India. In return, Reliance will help SkyTran with multiple technologies to run the pod taxi, including communication technology, which is an important part of the deal,” he added as reported by Live Mint.

Nitin Gadkari, the minister for road transport and highway, came up with the idea of introducing pod taxis in India in 2016. Subsequently a NITI Aayog panel cleared the ministries proposal to test three rapid systems using pod taxis in January 2017. They also observed that the energy consumed by passengers while travelling in rapid transit systems is lesser than that of other transport systems.