Indian Railways has delivered more than 15,284 metric tonnes (TN) of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) in over 936 tankers to 14 states across the country so far. Moreover, Assam received its first Oxygen Express carrying 80 Metric Tonnes (MT) of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in 4 tankers on Sunday morning, informed the Union Ministry of Railways.
As many as 234 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far to bring relief to various states and union territories (UTs).
As per an official press release, more than 15284 MT of LMO in more than 936 tankers has been delivered to various states across the country, with the trains delivering more than 800 MT of LMO on a daily basis.
On Sunday, nine loaded Oxygen Expresses are on run with more than 569 MT of LMO in 31 tankers.
The release stated that Oxygen Expresses reached out to 14 states namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam.
As of Sunday, 614 MT of oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3609 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 566 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 4300 MT in Delhi, 1759 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 1063 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 857 MT in Tamil Nadu, 642 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 153 MT in Punjab, 246 MT in Kerala, 976 MT in Telangana and 80 MT in Assam.
"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," stated the release.
These special trains have been delivering oxygen for the past 29 days. They were started on April 24 in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT.
Crisscrossing 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 and Assam in complex operational route planning scenarios.
According to the Union Railways Ministry, 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 the 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 one 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 the speed of other Freight Operation does not 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," said the media release.
( With inputs from ANI )
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