The Oxygen Expresses being run by the Indian Railways in response to its fight against Covid-19 have delivered nearly 150 tonnes of oxygen in the last 24 hours.

Oxygen Expresses with Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) tankers have arrived at Nashik and at Lucknow for Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.

A few containers were also unloaded at Nagpur and Varanasi enroute to supply LMO in the region. Also, a third Oxygen Express started its journey from Lucknow on Saturday.

States like Andhra Pradesh and Delhi are in consultation with the Railways to run more such trains.

Tankers filled with LMO at Visakhapatnam and Bokaro are presently being transported through Ro-Ro service of Indian Railways.

To fulfil the requirements of Medical Oxygen in Uttar Pradesh and smooth movement of the train, a green corridor was created between Lucknow and Varanasi and the 270 Km distance was covered in 4 hours and 20 minutes with an average speed of 62.35 kmph.

Transportation of oxygen through trains is faster over long distances than road transport. The Indian Railways transported essential commodities and kept the supply chain intact even during the lockdown last year.

A total of 5601 train coaches were converted as Covid Care Centers with 3816 still available for use as covid care coaches. The coaches can be used for very mild cases that can be clinically assigned to the covid care centers as per guidelines issued by the health ministry.

As of Saturday, 21 covid care coaches have been deployed at Nandurbar District in Maharashtra under Western Railway with 47 patients already being treated in the facility.

The Madhya Pradesh government has requested Indian Railways to deploy 20 covid care coaches in Bhopal and another 20 at Habibganj. These coaches will be handed over to the state government on Sunday.

50 covid care coaches have been deployed at Shakur Basti, 25 at Anand Vihar, 10 at Varanasi, 10 at Bhadohi and 10 at Faizabad.