Railways expands its ‘Oxygen Express’ operations to Haryana, Telangana

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 29

Noting that Oxygen Express trains continued to bring relief to the States, the Indian Railways on Thursday said the operations were being now expanded to Haryana and Telangana after transporting life-saving O2 to Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

Officials in the Ministry of Railway said Haryana would receive its first Oxygen express as a train with two tankers is expected to leave Angul (Odisha) 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,” said a senior Railway official.

The officials said, continuing the momentum, “There are three more trains on the run either carrying Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) and on the way to the loading plants. It is expected that cumulative LMO carried by Indian railways will reach almost 640 MT in next 24 hours.”

Giving break-up of the LMO transported to different parts of the country, the officials said, Uttar Pradesh received its Oxygen express Number 5 carrying 76.29 MT of (LMO today in 5 tankers. “One tanker was offloaded in Varanasi while the remaining 4 tankers were offloaded in Lucknow. Train Number 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 the next set of oxygen tankers,” a senior Railways official said.

“The Telangana government has also requested Indian Railways for Oxygen express. An empty rake is on its way from Secunderabad to Angul with 5 empty tankers and is expected to reach Angul tomorrow, said another official.

The Ministry in a statement said, Railways is in full preparedness for providing oxygen transportation services to all the states in need. “In the ongoing operation, states provide tankers to the Railway. Railway then proceeds in the 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 governments,” it said.

“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, the Ministry noted in its statement, while adding that route mapping also “takes care of the maximum clearances available along the route (because of various RUBs and FOBs)”.