Speed Post News Network
New Delhi : 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. So far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 11,030 MT of LMO in more than 675 tankers to different states.Oxygen Expresses had been delivering nearly 800 MT of LMO across the country each day for the last few days.
Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 23 days back on April 24, 2021, in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT. In slightly over 24 days time, Railways has upscaled its Oxygen Express operations to deliver more than 11,030 MT of Medical Oxygen to 13 States.
Criss crossing the country, Indian Railways is picking up oxygen from places like Hapa & Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in the East and delivering it to States of Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, MP, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi & UP 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. 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. It may be noted that nearly 175 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far. It is Indian Railways endeavour to deliver as much LMO as possible in the shortest time possible to the requesting states.
Till the time of this story, 521 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 2,858 MT in UP, 476 MT in MP, 1,427 MT in Haryana, 565 MT in Telangana, 40 MT in Rajasthan, 480 MT in Karnataka, 200 MT in Uttarakhand, 350 MT in Tamil Nadu, 81 MT in Punjab, 118 MT in Kerala, and nearly 3,794 MT in Delhi, according to a PIB release. More loaded Oxygen Expresses are expected to start their journeys on May 18, 2021, night. 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.