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 nearly 13,319 MT of LMO in more than 814 tankers to different states across the country.
It may be noted that 208 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far and brought relief to various States. Till the time of this release, 13 loaded Oxygen Expresses are on run with more than 1,018 MT of LMO. Oxygen Expresses have been delivering nearly 800 MT of LMO to the Nation each day for last few days. It is Indian Railways endeavour to deliver as much LMO as possible in the shortest time possible to the requesting states.
Oxygen relief by Oxygen Expresses reached out to 13 states namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh. Till the time of this release, 614 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,338 MT in UP, 521 MT in MP, 4110 MT in Delhi, 1,619 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 714 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 649 MT in Tamil Nadu, 292 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 153 MT in Punjab, 118 MT in Kerala, and 772 MT in Telangana, according to a PIB release.
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. It may be mentioned here that Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 27 days back on April 24, 2021, in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT.
Criss crossing the country, Indian Railways is picking up oxygen from places like Hapa, Baroda, Mundra in the West and Rourkela, and Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in the East, and then delivering the same to States of Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh 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.