Indian Railway is running Oxygen Express in response to its fight against Covid-19.

New Delhi, 22 April (HS): Keeping in view the rising demand of oxygen cylinders amid surge in the Covid-19 cases in the country, Indian Railway is running Oxygen Express in response to its fight against pandemic.

First Oxygen Express with Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) tankers is going to start its journey for Mumbai  from Visakhapatnam tonight. Tankers filled with LMO at Visakhapatnam are being transported through Ro-Ro service of Indian Railways.

Another Oxygen Express started its journey from Lucknow to Bokaro via Varanasi to fulfill the requirements of Medical Oxygen in Uttar Pradesh. For the movement of the train, a green corridor was created between Lucknow to Varanasi. The distance of 270 Km was covered by the train in 4 hours 20 minutes with an average speed of 62.35 kmph.

Transportation of Oxygen through Trains is faster over long distances than road transport. Trains can run 24 hours in a day but a truck drivers need to take halts etc.

It may please be noted that to facilitate loading/unloading of tankers in/from flat wagons, a ramp is required. Also, due to restrictions of height of Road Over Bridges (ROBs) and Over Head Equipment (OHE) at certain locations, out of the various specifications of road tankers, the model of road tanker T 1618 with height of 3320 mm was found feasible to be placed on flat wagons (DBKM) with height of 1290 mm.

Railways transported essential commodities and kept the supply chain intact even during the lockdown last year and continue to serve the Nation in times of emergencies.