Railways delivered over 15K MT of liquid Oxygen across the country

New Delhi, May 23 (IANS) Indian Railways has delivered more than 15,284 Metric Tonnes (MT) of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) in more than 936 tankers to various states across the country.

About 234 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far and brought relief to various states.

In a statement Ministry of Railways said, "Nine loaded Oxygen Expresses on run with more than 569 MT of LMO in 31 tankers."

First Oxygen Express to Assam with 80 MT of LMO in 4 tankers reached Assam today at around 11.30 am.

Delivery of LMO by Oxygen Expresses to Karnataka crossed 1,000 MT.

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

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 14 states namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam.

According to Ministry, 614 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,609 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 566 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 4,300 MT in Delhi, 1,759 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 1,063 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.

Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 29 days back on April 24 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 and Assam 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 one minute for crew changes over different sections," the Ministry said.

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.

The Ministry explained that 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.