First 'Oxygen Express' train to arrive in Assam

GUWAHATI: Overcoming all hurdles and finding new solutions, Indian Railways is continuing its journey of bringing relief by delivering Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) to various states across the country. So far, Indian Railways has delivered nearly 14500 MT of LMO in more than 884 tankers to various states across the country.

It may be noted that 224 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far and brought relief to various States.

Till the time of this release, 8 loaded Oxygen Expresses on run with more than 563 MT of LMO in 35 tankers.

Oxygen Expresses have been delivering more than 800 MT of LMO to the Nation each day now.

It may be mentioned that Assam will receive its first 'Oxygen Express' expected to reach Assam on Sunday, May 23. The Oxygen Express left from Tatanagar station of Jharkhand on May 22 at 17-55 hours carrying 4 containers with 80T of oxygen to reach Inland Container Depot, Amingaon, Guwahati.

It is Indian Railways endeavour to deliver as much LMO as possible in the shortest time possible to the requesting states.

Oxygen relief by Oxygen Expresses reached out to 13 states namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi & Uttar Pradesh.

Till the time of this release, 614 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3463 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 566 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 4278 MT in Delhi, 1698 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 943 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 769 MT in Tamil Nadu, 571 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 153 MT in Punjab, 246 MT in Kerala and 772 MT in Telangana.

Railways has mapped different routes with Oxygen supply locations and keeps itself ready with any emerging need of the States. States provide tankers to the Indian Railways for bringing LMO.

It may be noted that Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 28 days back on 24th April in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT.

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 in complex operational route planning scenarios.

In order to ensure that Oxygen relief reaches in the fastest time possible, Railways is creating new standards and unprecedented benchmarks in running of Oxygen Express Freight Trains. The average speed of these critical Freight trains is way above 55 in most cases over long distances. Running on high priority Green Corridor, with a highest sense of urgency, operational teams of various zones are working round the clock in most challenging circumstances to ensure that Oxygen reaches in fastest possible time frame. Technical stoppages have been reduced to 1 minute for crew changes over different sections.

Tracks are kept open and high alertness is maintained to ensure that Oxygen Express keeps zipping through.

All this is done in a manner that speed of other Freight Operation doesn't get reduced as well.

Running of new Oxygen is a very dynamic exercise and figures keep getting updated all the time. More loaded Oxygen Expresses are expected to start their journeys later in the night.

Also Read: Centre Sends 4 Oxygen Tankers to Assam, NE, Assam CM Thanks PM Modi