In its attempt to providing oxygen transportation services to all the states in need amid the COVID-19 crisis, Indian Railways on Thursday expanded the operations of Oxygen Express to the states of Haryana and Telangana.
Earlier the Railways has run Oxygen Express to Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
Several states in the country are in acute shortage of medical oxygen due to the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak.
According to Railways, Haryana will receive its first Oxygen Express as a train with two tankers is expected to leave Angul (Orissa) on Thursday. Empty rake from Faridabad to Rourkela is also on its way and is expected to reach tonight.
Telangana has also requested Railways for Oxygen Express. Railways said an empty rake has been on its way from Secunderabad to Angul with 5 empty tankers and is expected to reach Angul on Friday.
"Continuing the momentum, there are three more trains on the run either carrying liquid oxygen or on the way to the loading plants. It is expected that cumulative liquid medical oxygen (LMO) carried by Indian railways will reach almost 640 MT in the next 24 hours," said Indian Railways.
Uttar Pradesh received its fifth Oxygen Express carrying 76.29 MT of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in five tankers on Thursday. One tanker was offloaded in Varanasi while the remaining four tankers were offloaded in Lucknow. Railways said the sixth Oxygen Express for Uttar Pradesh is already on its way to Lucknow and is expected to arrive on Friday carrying 33.18 MT LMO in four tankers.
Another empty rake is expected to leave Lucknow on Thursday for bringing the next set of oxygen tankers.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor