One of the three tankers sent for oxygen came back to Kochi on Thursday with Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) from the Tata Steel Plant at Burnpur in West Bengal.
The vehicle with a tanker of LMO arrived at Cochin Air Products, owned by Cochin Shipyard, at 7.30 am. The tanker reached Kochi after traveling 2,670 km through various states. Four persons were on the team for this mission. Joby PG, Antony Joy, Viju PJ who were drivers of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) got special training and took the vehicle from Kochi. Aneesh, an Assistant motor vehicle inspector led the team.
The tankers, which were scheduled to take off from Nedumbassery on May 14 started on their journey from Coimbatore Air Force Port on May 15 due to bad weather. The oxygen tanker, which was being tested at the Burnpur plant, was loaded with oxygen and started its journey on May 17 at 2 am.
Aneesh, Assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector who lead the team throughout the journey said, "We had faced a lot of problems in the journey. Odisha authorities tried to seize the vehicle at the Odisha-Andhra border. They said they would take the oxygen in the vehicle and refill it as their vehicle was late in arriving. It was solved with the intervention of the Transport Commissioner of Kerala."
"We had to face such experiences till I crossed the Odisha border. Food and water were not available properly as it was lockdown in all the states. Meanwhile, the vehicle underwent a breakdown in Andhra Pradesh. We laid there for 8 hours on the highway. We took rest only at the petrol pumps and could not sleep much. The vehicle was driven by KSRTC drivers. They were good. When crossing the Kerala border, the vehicle was stopped at Walayar toll plaza. This is the first time we have had this experience in the whole journey. From yesterday, we had a pilot vehicle. This was teamwork. We are very happy that the mission has been completed."
B Shafeeq, Joint Regional Transport Officer (RTO), "The tanker was airlifted to there. So far 3 tankers have been airlifted. One of them came back with oxygen. The drive was done on a single stretch. The vehicle covered a distance of 2670 km."
Joby PG, KSRTC driver who drove the vehicle, "We only handled the buses significantly. Special training was required for this. We set out on this mission with two or three days of training. It took us 4 days to get here."
( With inputs from ANI )
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