Indian Railways (IR) is continuously delivering Liquid Medical Oxygen(LMO) to several states across the country, having delivered 29185 MT of LMO in over 1684 tankers .
As on date, 409 oxygen expresses have completed their journey, while seven loaded rakes are on run carrying over 551 MT of LMO in 28 tankers. Assam received its sixth oxygen Express from Jharkhand with 80 MT LMO in 4 tankers. Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries on April 24 in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT.
Oxygen Expresses have delivered over 14800 MT of LMO to the southern states – over 4500 MT to Tamil Nadu, over 3500 MT to Karnataka and over 3300 MT to Andhra.
A total of 15 states namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam have received LMO via oxygen expresses.
According to an IR statement on Friday, 614 MT LMO has been offloaded in Maharashtra, about 3797 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 656 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 5722 MT in Delhi, 2354 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 3564 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 4494.11 MT in Tamil Nadu, 3364 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 225 MT in Punjab, 513.72 MT in Kerala, 2851 MT in Telangana, 38 MT in Jharkhand and 480 MT in Assam.
Major user cities/towns for LMO include 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, Bathinda and Phillaur in Punjab, Kamrup in Assam and Ranchi in Jharkhand.
How IR transports LMO
Indian Railways has mapped different routes with oxygen supply locations. States that require oxygen provide LMO tankers to IR. Major sources of LMO include Hapa , Baroda, Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in the East. The oxygen is then delivered to the indenting state.
To ensure speedy delivery of LMO , IR runs oxygen expresses at an average speed of 55 kmph in most cases over long distances. These trains are run on high priority Green Corridor, with a highest sense of urgency, with all zones working 24*7*365.
Technical halts for crew change has been reduced to one minute over different sections. All this is done in a manner that speed of other freight operations are not reduced.
Running oxygen specials is an index of the seriousness of Covid-19. Short and long term measures should be thought off.
I think cities should be decongested by shifting some of the Institutions.
The concept of Smart cities should be changed to smaller towns and villages. It will reduce conjestion and better life. I had seen this in USA long ago. People are going to far off places for better life.
States should be strengthed for planning and development.
Such long term and short term goals involving people will eliminate the need for Oxygen specials which is an index of sickness. This present situation should open up our horizen for making a strong and vibrant India based on our heritage.