In a “milestone achievement”, the Indian Railways has delivered nearly 30,182 Metric Tonnes (MT) of medical oxygen in more than 1,734 tankers across the country, bringing relief to 15 states in the last 50 days.

Oxygen relief by 421 Oxygen Expresses reached to 15 states namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam.

So far, a total of 614 MT of oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,797 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 656 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 5,722 MT in Delhi, 2,354 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 3,782 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 4,941 MT in Tamil Nadu, 3,664 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 225 MT in Punjab, 513 MT in Kerala, 2,972 MT in Telangana, 38 MT in Jharkhand and 480 MT in Assam.

Till now Oxygen Expresses offloaded LMO in around 39 cities in these 15 states across the country– Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Bareilly, Gorakhpur & Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Sagar, Jabalpur, Katni and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Mumbai and Solapur in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Telangana, Faridabad and Gurugram in Haryana, Tuglakabad, Delhi Cantt and Okhla in Delhi, Kota and Kanakpara in Rajasthan, Bengaluru in Karnataka, Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Nellore, Guntur, Tadipatri and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Ernakulam in Kerala, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Tuticorin, Coimbatore and Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Bhatinda and Phillaur in Punjab, Kamrup in Assam and Ranchi in Jharkhand.

Overcoming all hurdles and finding new solutions, the Indian Railways is continuing its journey of bringing relief by delivering Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) to various states across the country.

Oxygen Expresses delivered more than 15,000 MT of LMO to the southern states of the country as well as 3,600, 3,700 and 4,900 MT of LMO in the state of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu respectively.

Presently, two loaded Oxygen Expresses are on run with more than 177 MT of LMO in 10 tankers. Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 50 days back on April 24 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.

The Railways has mapped different routes with Oxygen supply locations and keeps itself ready with any emerging need of the States which provide tankers 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, the Railways is creating new standards and unprecedented benchmarks in running of Oxygen Express Freight Trains, said a Ministry of Railways statement.

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, it said.

“Technical stoppages have been reduced to 1 minute for crew changes over different sections. Tracks are kept open and high level of alertness is maintained to ensure that Oxygen Express keeps zipping through. All this is done in a manner that other Freight Operation doesn’t get reduced as well.”

Running of new Oxygen Expresses is a very dynamic exercise and figures keep getting updated all the time, said the Ministry, adding more loaded Oxygen Expresses are expected to start their journeys later in the night on Sunday.