Indian City Traffic

Transportation

Revolutionizing urban mobility through innovative technology and sustainable solutions

Explore HASHTIC

The Urban Commute Chaos

People commuting for work in most large cities of India face heavily congested roads. Even a 15 Km ride typically takes more than an hour. This means commuting to work and back consumes two to two and a half hours every day. For most people in the city this has become an extremely tiring everyday reality.

Our team of Scientists, experts on road transportation & unit economics along with sustainability teams are working on a solution using deep tech that will work for the demands of the rapidly growing Indian economy.

The worst part is that nobody seems to have a solution. All attempts made so far have only marginally improved the situation temporarily, only to deteriorate back in a short time.

This seems like an impossible problem to solve, and that is precisely why ITEL's team took up this challenge. Our goal is simple and bold - Make the 15 km commute possible in 20 minutes, from anywhere to anywhere within the city. For a longer distance of 20 km, the commute time should be 24 – 25 minutes, and so on.

The 20 Minute Commute Goal

At ITEL, we understood that, to address this challenge, what is needed is not an alternate solution but alternate thinking. Public infrastructure must be built to last, so the design should be for a system for the next hundred years.

Therefore, we set out to build a solution, that must:

Absolutely Green

Zero emissions, sustainable for the environment

Energy Efficient

Optimized power consumption

City Compatible

Buildable in existing urban areas

Scalable

Handle peak traffic today and tomorrow

Comfortable

Pleasant commuting experience

Affordable

Accessible to all citizens

This was clearly an impossible challenge and exactly the kind ITEL was set up to solve. Scientists from multiple institutes along with some start-ups come together as a consortium to find a solution for such impossible challenges.

The process began with conceptual brainstorming. The team studied the cities closely, which led to the insight that most traffic seemed to flow on four or five major north-south and four to five major east-west roads in the cities.

This convergence of significant amount of traffic in a few roads led to congestion leading to long commute hours and making the roads impossible to travel.

The study also led the team to realise that there are hundreds of smaller roads, streets and lanes in the cities, and the solution lies in leveraging them effectively.

This realisation led to the birth of HASHTIC - High-Throughput Autonomous Sustainable Human Transportation for India's next Century.

What is HASTIC (High-Throughput Autonomous Sustainable Human Transportation for India's Next Century)?

HASHTIC (High-Throughput Autonomous Sustainable Human Transportation for India's Next Century) is a breakthrough urban transport system designed to cut city commute times drastically.

When the team decided to utilise narrow streets and lanes effectively, they realised that they had to come up with a solution that is elevated and narrow for easy navigation.

This led to the concept of a solution that is both elevated and narrow, built on these smaller streets. The team designed autonomous pods just 0.8 meters wide, perfectly sized to carry two people, sitting back to back.

Recognising that the intersections are the key cause for traffic congestions in city roads, the team created a solution entirely intersection-free by incorporating two levels of elevated tracks, with one set of parallel lines running at about 8 meters height from ground-level and another at about 11 meters. So, with no real intersections, no traffic-lights, and therefore no no stopping

The HASHTIC network would be a dense 700 x 700-meter grid, mapping the entire city to provide efficient and accessible transportation for commuters.

How HASHTIC Works?

HASHTIC combines autonomous pods, elevated tracks, and a centralised AI-powered control system to deliver seamless city commutes. The entire system is designed for speed, efficiency, accessibility and ease of use.

To maximize the efficiency of this breakthrough solution, the pods are designed to

  • run on 100% green electricity
  • run on rails, since the friction losses with rails is one-tenth that of roads
  • platoon, when they are moving in the same direction, thus reducing the aerodynamic resistance and also reducing the energy consumption per pod

To avoid the signalling delays, congestion and risks created by track switching, HASHTIC uses an innovative design that incorporates a switching mechanism within the pods to track-switch without delays, while the tracks themselves remain passive.

The design also includes two stations at every virtual crossing built into existing buildings of the grid allowing easy access to the commuters, thereby basically solving the first- and last-mile challenges of the traditional mass transit. With 8 stations in every 700 x 700 metre square, commuters have access to stations within 300 to 400 meters of walking

Ride booking is facilitated through a mobile app that directs commuters to one of the nearby station, where a pod will be waiting to board. The pods move continuously to reach their destination without any stops.

The AI-powered centralised control system that assigns routes to every pod ensures that no route link exceeds 20% of its capacity to avoid congestion in any link of the vast grid.

This allows the pods to move at an average speed of 80 kmph, ensuring that a 15 km trip is completed in 20 minutes, and a 20 km trip in 24 minutes, 25 km trip in 27 minutes, and so on, including the 3 or 4-minute walk to and from origin and destination stations .

The most important target, of course, is to get the person comfortably from home to office, so the pod is being designed with air-conditioning for human comfort. Another important target is affordability so HASHTIC system will be accessible for everyone. In a preliminary cost estimate, HASHTIC rides will cost about the price of riding a two-wheeler.

HASHTIC's Journey So Far

The team carried out extensive simulations, which confirmed feasibility. Early cost estimates also indicate that HASHTIC can be built on low cost, making it feasible for large scale adoption.

As the first step, the team built a small-scale prototype, which includes autonomous pods and two levels of tracks allowing the pod to turn without traditional track switching. This prototype was installed at the IIT Madras Research Park, where multiple versions of prototype pods were tested to validate the concept.

As the next step, the full-scale pod design has begun and an expanded consortium of experts has been formed with 50 to 60 engineers from ITEL, CEET IIT Madras, IIT Tirupati, IIT Hyderabad and Centre of Excellence Trivandrum. In addition, we have also collaborated with leading industry players like L&T and Bharat Forge. Detailed design and costing are currently in progress.

Ground-level full-pod testing is expected to commence this year (2025). ITEL has entered into a partnership with Sri City, a special economic zone located near Chennai for full-scale pilot trials.

During trials, the team will simulate all possible scenarios to test the durability, speed and safety to ensure long-lasting and reliable service.

The Road Ahead

While the team has achieved significant milestones so far, the next steps will focus on testing the safety and reliability of the system on full scale to ensure smooth integration into existing cities.

For HASHTIC to succeed, the solution must not only deliver on time and cost but also be easily embraced by citizens as a transport option that makes a clear and positive difference in their lives.

Once HASHTIC pilot runs succeed, this system will be deployed with assistance from build-and-operate partners across the nation.

Partner Institutions

ITEL brings together a consortium of institutions who work alongside the ITEL team to enable a solution for complex challenges and deliver long-lasting solutions using Deep Tech.

The partner institutions for HASHTIC are:

Academic Partners

  • IIT Hyderabad
  • IIT Madras
  • IIT Tirupati
  • CoE Trivandrum

Industry Partners

  • L&T Construction Division
  • L&T Railway Division
  • Triox Mobility
  • Uptycs

We invite institutions to become a part of our consortia, where together we create scalable and sustainable solutions for the toughest and most impossible challenges, thus making India a Global Tech leader!

HASHTIC Members

Meet the distinguished members of the HASHTIC Network

Ashok Jhunjhunwala

Ashok Jhunjhunwala

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Prof. Satyanarayana

Prof. Satyanarayana

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Prof. Mahendrakumar

Prof. Mahendrakumar

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Prof. Nithyadharan

Prof. Nithyadharan

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Prof. Lokesh Kalahasti

Prof. Lokesh Kalahasti

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Prof. Anil R

Prof. Anil R

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Prof. Venkatesh

Prof. Venkatesh

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Umesh Sirsiwal

Umesh Sirsiwal

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Kaushal Kumar Jha

Kaushal Kumar Jha

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Kannan L

Kannan L

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Soundar Balakumaran

Soundar Balakumaran

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We Welcome You to Partner in Our Journey!

If you are a scientist, technologist, or an innovator, who believes in changing the world, then connect with us. If you are an investor or a passionate individual in any field, who wishes to see India take technology leadership, connect with us.

We invite you to become a part of our consortia and let us together think and create scalable and sustainable solutions for the most complex, toughest and impossible challenges and make our country a technology leader!

Write to us at

connect@itelfoundation.in