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. Oxygen Expresses have crossed the milestone of 35,000 MT of LMO delivery in service to the Nation. So far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 35,018 MT of LMO in more than 1,990 tankers to different states.
It may be noted that 477 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far. Oxygen Expresses delivered nearly 20,500 MT of LMO to the southern states of the country. Till now, Oxygen Expresses delivered more than 3,900, 4,700, 4,800 and 6,500 MT of LMO to the state of Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu respectively. Till the time of this release, 6 loaded Oxygen Express are on run with more than 522 MT of LMO in 28 tankers.
It may be mentioned here that Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 67 days back on April 24, 2021, in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT. 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 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 3,797 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 656 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 5,863 MT in Delhi, 2,354 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 4,697 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 6,551 MT in Tamil Nadu, 4,824 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 225 MT in Punjab, 513 MT in Kerala, 3,909 MT in Telangana, 38 MT in Jharkhand, and 560 MT in Assam, according to a PIB release.
Till now Oxygen Expresses offloaded LMO in around 39 cities/towns in 15 states across the country namely Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Bareilly, Gorakhpur & Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Sagar, Jabalpur, Katni & Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Mumbai & Solapur in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Telangana, Faridabad & Gurugram in Haryana, Tuglaqabad, Delhi Cantt & Okhla in Delhi, Kota & Kanakpara in Rajasthan, Bengaluru in Karnataka, Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Nellore, Guntur, Tadipatri & Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Ernakulam in Kerala, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Tuticorin, Coimbatore & Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Bhatinda & 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 & 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. 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.