Despite storm, trains ferry oxygen from eastern states

Despite the challenges posed by Cyclone Yaas, which hit Odisha and West Bengal on Wednesday, Indian Railways scaled up its operations to ferry oxygen from the eastern states to meet the demand across the country for use in the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

New Delhi: Despite the challenges posed by Cyclone Yaas which hit Odisha and West Bengal on Wednesday, Indian Railways scaled up its operations to ferry oxygen from the eastern states to bring relief to the nation amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Railways said that till late night of Tuesday, 12 Oxygen Expresses, carrying 969 Metric Tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen started their journeys from cyclone hit eastern states in bad weather.

Three trains travel to Tamil Nadu, four to Andhra Pradesh, and one each for Delhi region, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Assam and Kerala.

Total Medical Oxygen delivered by Indian Railways

On Tuesday, Railways said that despite the cyclone warnings, 680 Metric Tonnes of Liquid Medical Oxygen was lifted from the states Odisha, West Bengal, and Jharkhand in the last 12 hours via 8 Oxygen Expresses.

Apart from these trains, Telangana also received its fifteenth Oxygen Express, which arrived at Sanath Nagar in Hyderabad on Wednesday with 117.65 MT of LMO in six container tankers from Rourkela.

In the Southern States, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Telangana, the delivery of LMO via Oxygen Expresses have crossed 1000 MT each.

So far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 17945 MT of LMO in around 1080 tankers as 272 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey reaching various states across the country.

Read: Railways record highest-ever single day load, delivers over 1,142 MT of Oxygen

Railways have mapped different routes with Oxygen supply locations and keep themselves ready to meet the needs of the States.

Indian Railways is loading its trains from oxygen plants at Hapa, Baroda, Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar and 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 a complex operation.

Read: Oxygen Express piloted by 'all-female crew' reaches Bengaluru

Railways are 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.

Read: Agra receives first Oxygen Express with 64MT of oxygen