Indian Railways expands Oxygen Express to Telangana, Haryana

Railways is also carrying out route mapping to take advantage of the maximum clearances available along the route.

Indian Railways has expanded their ‘Oxygen Express’ operations to Haryana and Telangana after Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi to bring relief to the states as India battles the second wave of Covid 19. Presently, four ‘Oxygen Express’ trains are on the run.

Two trains loaded from Bokaro to Lucknow, one empty train from Faridabad and carrying tankers of the Haryana government is enroute to Rourkela and another empty train is on the way from Secunderabad for Angul with tankers of Telangana government. It is expected that cumulative LMO carried by IR will reach almost 640 MT in the next 24 hours.

The state of UP received its fifth ‘Oxygen Express’ carrying 76.29 MT of LMO in 5 tankers. While one tanker was offloaded in Varanasi, remaining four tankers were offloaded in Lucknow. The sixth train is on its way to Lucknow and is expected to arrive on Friday, carrying 33.18 MT LMO in 4 tankers. Another empty rake is expected to leave Lucknow for bringing next set of oxygen tankers.

Haryana will receive its first ‘Oxygen Express’ with two tankers with the train expected to leave Angul (Orissa) on 29 April. An empty rake from Faridabad to Rourkela is also on its way and is expected to reach Thursday night. On the request of the Telangana government for ‘Oxygen Express’, an empty rake is on its way from Secunderabad to Angul with five empty tankers and is expected to reach Angul on Friday.

Under the standard procedures, states provide tankers to IR which then proceeds in the fastest mode to bring the oxygen supplies from the locations and delivers it to the requisitioning state. The deployment and use of this oxygen is done by the state government. Railways is also carrying out route mapping to take advantage of the maximum clearances available along the route.