Trains deliver oxygen to 41 locations in 15 states

Indian Railways, on Friday, informed that Oxygen Expresses are now offloading Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) at 41 stations in the 39 cities and towns of 15 states across the nation. So far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 19,408 MT of LMO in more than 1,162 tankers to various states as 289 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey.

New Delhi: Indian Railways, on Friday, informed that Oxygen Expresses are now offloading Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) at 41 stations in the 39 cities and towns of 15 states across the nation.

These 39 cities and town are as follows: -

• Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Bareilly, Gorakhpur and 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.
• Ranchi in Jharkhand.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, a Railway official said that the addition of stations for the transport of liquid Oxygen is an ongoing process and it is being done in a graded manner. So far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 19,408 MT of LMO in more than 1,162 tankers to various states across the country as 289 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey. Meanwhile, 11 loaded Oxygen Expresses are currently running with more than 865 MT of LMO in 50 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, 5,185 MT in Delhi, 1,967 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 1,773 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 1,554 MT in Tamil Nadu, 1,268 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 225 MT in Punjab, 380 MT in Kerala, 1,432 MT in Telangana, 38 MT in Jharkhand and 160 MT in Assam.

The Railways has mapped different routes with Oxygen supply locations and keeps itself ready with any emerging need of the states. The 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 Western India and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in Eastern India 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 operational route planning scenarios.

The average speed of these critical freight trains is way above 55 kilometres in most cases over long distances. The 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. The operation is being done in a manner that the speed of freight operations doesn't get reduced, informed the Ministry of Railways.