Over 25629 metric tonnes of medical oxygen transported to states by Oxygen Expresses: Ministry of Railways

With the delivery of more than 25629 Metric Tonnes (MT) of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) in more than 1503 tankers to various states across the country so far, Oxygen Expresses crossed a milestone in service to the nation, informed the Union Railways Ministry on Saturday.

According to a statement issued by the ministry today, 368 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far and brought relief to various states.

It further informed that till the time of releasing the statement, seven loaded Oxygen Expresses were on the run with more than 482 MT of LMO in 30 tankers.

Stating that Assam received its fifth Oxygen Express with 80 MT LMO in 4 tankers from Jharkhand, the ministry also mentioned that more than 3000 MT LMO has been offloaded in the state of Karnataka by Oxygen Expresses.

It is worth mentioning that Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 42 days back on 24th April in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT, it said.

Oxygen relief by Oxygen Expresses reached out to 15 states namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam.

Till the time of this release, 614 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3797 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 656 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 5790 MT in Delhi, 2212 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 3097 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 2787 MT in Tamil Nadu, 2602 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 225 MT in Punjab, 513 MT in Kerala, 2474 MT in Telangana, 38 MT in Jharkhand and 400 MT in Assam.

Till now Oxygen Expresses offloaded LMO in around 39 cities/towns in 15 states across the country namely Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Bareilly, Gorakhpur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Sagar, Jabalpur, Katni and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Mumbai and Solapur in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Telangana, Faridabad and Gurugram in Haryana, Tuglakabad, Delhi Cantt and Okhla in Delhi, Kota and Kanakpara in Rajasthan, Bengaluru in Karnataka, Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Nellore, Guntur, Tadipatri and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Ernakulam in Kerala, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Tuticorin, Coimbatore and Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Bhatinda and Phillaur in Punjab, Kamrup in Assam and Ranchi in Jharkhand.

Indian Railways has mapped different routes with Oxygen supply locations and keeps itself ready with any emerging need of the States. States provide tankers to the Indian Railways for bringing LMO.

Criss crossing the country, Indian Railways is picking up oxygen from places like Hapa , Baroda, Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in the East and then delivering it to States of Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam in complex operational route planning scenarios.

In order to ensure that Oxygen relief reaches in the fastest time possible, Railways is creating new standards and unprecedented benchmarks in running of Oxygen Express Freight Trains. The average speed of these critical Freight trains is way above 55 in most cases over long distances. Running on high priority Green Corridor, with a highest sense of urgency, operational teams of various zones are working round the clock in most challenging circumstances to ensure that Oxygen reaches in fastest possible time frame. Technical stoppages have been reduced to 1 minute for crew changes over different sections.

Tracks are kept open and high alertness is maintained to ensure that Oxygen Express keeps zipping through. All this is done in a manner that speed of other Freight Operation doesn't get reduced as well, said the ministry.

Running of new Oxygen is a very dynamic exercise and figures keep getting updated all the time. More loaded Oxygen Expresses are expected to start their journeys later in the night.

Overcoming all hurdles and finding new solutions, Indian Railways is continuing its journey of bringing relief by delivering Liquid Medical Oxygen(LMO) to various states across the country.

( With inputs from ANI )