Oxygen Express trains of Indian Railways have started delivering a record 800 metric tonnes of the life- saving gas every day to cities across the nation with the freight trains clocking an average speed of close to 60 km an hour to cover the long distance journeys from the country’s steel plants and sea ports.
According to a Railway Ministry statement issued on Friday, Indian Railways has delivered nearly 7900 metric tonnes (MT) of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in nearly 500 tankers so far to various states across the country.Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 20 days back on 24th April 2021 in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT of LMO. In just 20 days, Railways has upscaled it's Oxygen Express operations to deliver nearly 7900 MT of medical oxygen to 12 States, the statement said,
Crisscrossing the country, Indian Railways is picking up Oxygen from places like Hapa near Jamnagar and Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar and Angul in the East and then 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, the statement explained.
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.
The first Oxygen Expresses for Andhra Pradesh and Kerala are on their way to with 40 MT and 118 MT of Oxygen relief respectively.
As many as 130 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far and brought relief to various States. While 462 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 2210 MT in UP, 408 MT in MP, 1228 MT in Haryana, 308 MT in Telangana, 72 MT in Rajasthan, 120 MT in Karnataka, 80 MT in Uttarakhand, 80 MT in Tamil Nadu. Delhi which was facing a ferocious coronavirus wave has been received more than 2934 MT of oxygen.
