New Delhi: As the 'very severe' cyclonic storm Yaas, made landfall on Wednesday, leaving behind a trail of destruction on the eastern coast, the affected states continued to provide aid to the nation in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ministry of Railways, on Thursday, informed that 536 Metric Tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) was transported from the cyclone-hit states soon after Yaas made landfall.
Cyclone-hit states transport 536 MT LMO via Oxygen Express Cyclone Yaas made landfall in the bordering coastal regions of Odisha and West Bengal, on Wednesday morning. By afternoon, the cyclonic storm moved towards Jharkhand, resulting in heavy rainfall across the region.
Read:|Railways record highest-ever single day load, delivers over 1,142 MT of Oxygen
Despite these challenges, around 536 MT of Oxygen was dispatched from the cyclone-affected eastern states since Wednesday night. This includes transportation of 200 MT of LMO from Rourkela, Odisha and 240 from Tatanagar, Jharkhand, authorities said.
The first Oxygen Express left Tata Nagar amid challenging weather conditions to transport 120 MT of Oxygen loaded in six tankers to Bangalore in Karnataka. Another train from Tata Nagar has transported 120 MT of LMO to Telangana.
An Oxygen Express from Rourkela left in the early hours on Thursday and is currently en route to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh with nearly 78 MT of LMO in four containers.
In addition to this, one Oxygen Express for Kerala arrived at Ernakulam from Rourkela with seven containers carrying 133.64 MT of LMO and another reached Madukkarai in Coimbatore with six tankers carrying 89.28 MT of LMO on Thursday afternoon.
Another Oxygen Express loaded 96.42 MT of LMO from Angul in Odisha to transport it to Hyderabad.
"Running of new Oxygen is a very dynamic exercise and figures keep getting updated all the time," an official told ETV Bharat.
Meanwhile, Railways has set another record, on Thursday, by delivering its highest single-day load of 1,195 MT Oxygen relief to the nation surpassing its previous high of 1,142 MT Oxygen relief delivered on May 23.
Offloading of Liquid Medical Oxygen in Delhi has crossed 5,000 MT. While amongst the southern states, delivery of LMO to Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana has crossed 1,000 MT each.
So far, Indian Railways has delivered over 18,980 MT of LMO in more than 1,141 tankers to various states across the country and 284 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey.
Read:|Oxygen Express piloted by 'all-female crew' reaches Bengaluru
Also, four loaded Oxygen Expresses are currently on run with more than 392 MT of LMO in 20 tankers.
As per the official data, 614 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,731 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 656 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 5,077 MT in Delhi, 1,967 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 1,653 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 1,550 MT in Tamil Nadu, 1,190 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 225 MT in Punjab, 380 MT in Kerala, 1,312 MT in Telangana, 38 MT in Jharkhand and 160 MT in Assam.
Railways has mapped different routes with Oxygen supply locations and keep itself ready with any emerging need of the states. States provide tankers to the Indian Railways for bringing LMO.
To deliver oxygen to the states, Indian Railways is loading its trains from Oxygen plants at Hapa, Baroda, Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in the East and then delivering it to the states of Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in complex operational route planning scenarios.
The average speed of these critical freight trains is way above 55 in most cases over long distances.
Railways is running these trains on high priority Green Corridor, with a sense of urgency. Technical stoppages have been reduced to 1 minute for crew changes over different sections.
All this is done in a manner that speed of other Freight Operation does not get reduced as well, Ministry of Railways informed.
Read:|Despite storm, trains ferry oxygen from eastern states
