New Delhi (NVI): The Ministry of Railways today said that the services of Oxygen Express being operated by Indian Railways has been expanded to the states of Haryana and Telangana after Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi as the country is witnessing a huge surge in the COVID-19 cases.
Railway Ministry in a statement said, “Continuing the momentum, there are three more trains on the run either carrying Liquid Oxygen or on the way to the loading plants. It is expected that cumulative liquid medical oxygen (LMO) carried by Indian railways will reach almost 640 MT in next 24 hours.”
The statement said that Uttar Pradesh received its Oxygen express no. 5 carrying 76.29 MT of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) today in 5 tankers. 1 Tanker was offloaded in Varanasi while remaining 4 tankers are offloaded in Lucknow.
Train no. 6 is already on its way to Lucknow and is expected to arrive tomorrow carrying 33.18 MT LMO in 4 tankers. Another empty rake is expected to leave Lucknow today for bringing next set of oxygen tankers.
Haryana will receive its first Oxygen express as a train with two tankers is expected to leave Angul (Orissa) today. Empty rake from Faridabad to Rourkela is also on its way and is expected to reach tonight. Continuous stream of Oxygen trains to Haryana will ensure oxygen replenishment to the Covid-19 patients in the state.
Telangana governemnt has also requested Indian Railways for oxygen express. An empty rake is on its way from Secunderabad to Angul with five empty tankers and is expected to reach Angul tomorrow.
Railways said, “It is in full preparedness for providing oxygen transportation services to all the states in need. In the ongoing operation, States provide tankers to the Railways. Railways then proceeds in fastest feasible mode to bring the Oxygen supplies from the locations and delivers it the requisitioning state. The deployment and use of this Oxygen is done by the state government.”
Liquid Oxygen being a cryogenic cargo has many limitations like maximum speed at which it can be carried, maximum acceleration and deceleration and loading restrictions like availability of liquid oxygen tankers and loading ramps etc. Route mapping also takes care of the maximum clearances available along the route (because of various RUBs and FOBs).
–PRT
