NE NEWS SERVICE
NEW DELHI, JUN 13
Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) deliveries by Railways’ Oxygen Express trains from across the country have crossed the milestone of 30,000 tonnes on Sunday.
Southern Railway alone delivered 5052.98 MT (One sixth of the total supply) through 68 Oxygen Express trains. The last load of 6 containers carrying 111.66 MT of LMO arrived Chennai Harbour from Jindal Steel Siding from Dolvi in Maharashtra on Saturday evening at 6.45 p.m., according to Southern Railway CPRO B. Guganesan.
The services were started in the wake of a severe second Covid wave and these trains had started deliveries on April 24 in Maharashtra with a load of 126 tonnes.
So far, the Indian Railways has delivered nearly 30,182 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in more than 1,734 tankers to various states, the national transporter said.
While 421 Oxygen Express trains have completed their journey so far and brought relief to various states, two loaded trains with more than 177 tonnes of LMO in 10 tankers are on way to their destinations, the railways said in a statement.
Oxygen Express trains have delivered more than 15,000 tonnes of LMO to southern states of the country, it said.
These train have delivered more than 3,600, 3,700 and 4,900 tonnes of LMO in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu respectively.
The service has reached out to 15 states and union territories — Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam.
Till now, 614 tonnes of LMO has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,797 tonnes in Uttar Pradesh, 656 tonnes in Madhya Pradesh, 5,722 tonnes in Delhi, 2,354 tonnes in Haryana, 98 tonnes in Rajasthan, and 3,782 tonnes in Karnataka, the statement said.
So far, 320 tonnes of LMO has been offloaded in Uttarakhand, 5052.98 tonnes in Tamil Nadu, 3,664 tonnes in Andhra Pradesh, 225 tonnes in Punjab, 513 tonnes in Kerala, 2,972 tonnes in Telangana, 38 tonnes in Jharkhand and 480 tonnes in Assam, it said.
Oxygen Express trains have offloaded LMO in around 39 cities or towns in 15 states.
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 with creating green corridors.
