NEW DELHI: Introduction of driverless pod taxis to ferry passengers within cities and for inter-city movement will take longer. Niti Aayog, which recently went through presentations by three major players that had bid for a pilot in Gurugram, has suggested that each of them can build a 1km stretch each to test the technology at their own cost, sources said.TOI has learnt that while four players — two foreign and two Indian — had bid for NHAI's 13-km stretch project from Gurugram-Delhi border to Badshapur Mod, only three put their case before Niti Aayog."It was found that only one system is in operation at Heathrow airport and that too it covers less than four km. There is a need to establish that the technology used in this system is safe and can be used for mass transport . It was also felt that the companies can build tracks, bring technology and operate them to prove their safety aspects and success as well," a government source said.The three companies that had made presentations before Niti Aayog were Metrino PRT of Poland, Sky Tran of the USA and Neel Metal Products, a JBM Group Company. The fourth bidder was Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd. Pod taxi is a personalised transit system in which pods use the overhead rail like track. Each pod carrying 2-4 passengers running on electricity and driverless pods move at an elevation above the ground. These go up and come down at designated stations. Hence, movement of pods becomes seamless at that too at a high speed.The delay in pilot pod taxi project is also being seen as an indication of how India will take longer to jump on to the "Hyperloop" concept that has become a kind of buzzword in the past two years.It can be recalled that former Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had first mooted the idea of pod taxis in September 2010 that could connect all major built up areas in Gurugram. In February 2015, Union road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari had talked about introducing Metrino (one variant of pod taxis) to make commuters travel seamlessly between Dhaula Kuan and Manesar, which is one of the most congested highway stretches in the country.Following highway ministry's go ahead NHAI had invited technical bids, but these could not be opened as it was not clear under what law and statute the new technology-based transport system could be made operational.

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