Railways deliver 450 tonnes of liquid oxygen so far, Delhi receives 70 tonnes

On Tuesday, Delhi received its first Oxygen Express’ train ferrying four cryogenic tankers carrying liquid medical oxygen (LMO) from Jindal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) steel plant in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh on Tuesday morning, said officials from the railway ministry aware of the development. The train reached the national capital at 4 am.

“Delhi has received its first Oxygen Express carrying more than 70 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen today early morning,” the ministry said.

The national carrier has thus far delivered 450 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen to Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi through six Oxygen Express trains, carrying 26 tankers and covering over 10,000 kilometres since April 19, the ministry of railways said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Currently, another Oxygen Express is on its way from Bokaro to Bhopal via Jabalpur. This train is carrying 64 metric tonnes of liquid medical oxygen in six tankers which will replenish oxygen demand in Madhya Pradesh through the city of Bhopal and Jabalpur,” the ministry said.

“Another empty rake from Lucknow has reached Bokaro which will bring another set of oxygen tankers replenishing oxygen supply to Uttar Pradesh,” it added.

Plagued by the acute shortage of oxygen due to a significant rise in Covid-19 cases, more states are seeking the railways’ assistance for delivering LMO via the ‘Oxygen Express’ trains. The national carrier has planned more Oxygen Express trains to Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, Delhi and MP in the coming weeks. The first Oxygen Express train departed from Mumbai to Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh on April 19.

On March 18, the Indian Railways decided to deploy first-of-a-kind ‘Oxygen Express’ trains to transport LMO and oxygen cylinders in bulk along key corridors amid high demand from states grappling with the second wave of Covid-19.

“So far, as per provisional estimates, Indian Railways has delivered 202 metric tonnes to Uttar Pradesh, 174 metric tonnes to Maharashtra and 70 metric tonnes to Delhi. Madhya Pradesh will receive 64 metric tonnes in the next 24 hours,” the ministry added.