The Oxygen Express has proved to be a boon for the country as in just over a fortnight the Indian Railways have transported 4,709 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen across the country. They expect ferrying 5,000 MT by May 11 which includes 4 more tankers for Maharashtra. The state Transport department has also set up a ‘war room’ to monitor these oxygen tankers, once they hit the road, on real time basis.
On Monday, the Indian Railways ferried a record 831 MT of liquid oxygen across the country taking the total carrying output to 4,709 MT. The railway authorities claim that they are posting their wagons to the closest point of pick-up and drop-off of oxygen from the production plant, to save time.
“We are confident that we will touch the magic figure of 5,000 MT by tomorrow (May 11). Transportation of liquid oxygen has been our biggest effort and we sent our wagons to all parts of the country wherever oxygen is being produced. Every day the number of tankers ferried is increasing. We are mapping the location and movement of each of these trains,” said Suneet Sharma, Chairman and CEO, Railway Board.
The Railways have ferried 121 Oxygen Express trains moving 295 full tankers of liquid medical oxygen. Maharashtra has received 18 tankers in which 293 MT of LMO was delivered. By Tuesday, 50 more tankers carrying 744 MT will be ferried across the country.
Most number of tankers ferried was for Delhi with 100 of them and this is followed by Uttar Pradesh which received 98 tankers. The railway officials said that on April 24, the first Oxygen Express train arrived at Nashik which carried 174 MT of LMO. It had started from Mumbai on April 19 to Vizag where the LMO was filled and sent in tankers. Since then the number of oxygen carried has gone up substantially.
By April 30, the Railways ferried 712 MT but on May 2 it had touched 1094 MT of oxygen. The Indian Railways, as on May 5, were transporting 2247 MT which has doubled and touched 4709 MT on May 10.
The state government too is monitoring these tankers for which a dedicated war room has been created. Recently, the process of installing GPS in 250 trucks in Maharashtra began.
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