So far, the world’s fourth-largest rail transporter has ferried this through 43 Oxygen Express freight services in more than 1,830 tankers to various states, a Ministry of Railways release has said.
The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in India led companies in the government and private sector to come forward to support the nation’s fight to offer relief during the crisis. For instance, several industrial plants repurposed themselves to manufacture LMO to prevent its shortage.
The Oxygen Expresses started operations on April 24 with a load of 126 MT, with the Railways endeavouring to deliver maximum LMO in the shortest time possible to states in need.
A total of 15 states have so far benefitted from these special freight services. These include Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam.
Till June 17, 614 MT of LMO was offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,797 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 656 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 5,722 MT in Delhi, 2,354 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 4,149 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 5,674 MT in Tamil Nadu, 4,036 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 225 MT in Punjab, 513 MT in Kerala, 3,255 MT in Telangana, 38 MT in Jharkhand and 560 MT in Assam.
Supplies were offloaded in around 39 cities and towns, viz. Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Bareilly, Gorakhpur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Sagar, Jabalpur, Katni and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Mumbai and Solapur in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Telangana, Faridabad and Gurugram in Haryana, Tuglakabad, Delhi Cantt and Okhla in Delhi, Kota and Kanakpara in Rajasthan, Bengaluru in Karnataka, Dehradun in Uttarakhand, Nellore, Guntur, Tadipatri and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Ernakulam in Kerala, Tiruvallur, Chennai, Tuticorin, Coimbatore and Madurai in Tamil Nadu, Bhatinda and Phillaur in Punjab, Kamrup in Assam and Ranchi in Jharkhand.
Having mapped different routes with LMO supply locations, the Railways has also kept itself prepared to meet any emerging needs of the states. The Railways takes LMO deliveries from places like Hapa, Vadodara and Mundra in western India and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar and Angul in eastern India, in tankers provided by states requisitioning supplies.
To ensure that LMO supplies are reached in the fastest time possible, the Railways has created new standards and benchmarks in running these Oxygen Express services. The average speed of the special freight trains is maintained above 55 km/hr in most cases over long distances. Running on high-priority Green Corridors, operational teams of various zones have been working round-the-clock in most challenging circumstances to ensure a smooth operation. Technical stoppages have been reduced to one minute for crew changes on different sections.
Tracks are kept open and a high state of alert is maintained to ensure that Oxygen Expresses keep moving even as it is ensured that speeds of other freight services aren’t compromised.
