Indian Railways transported essential commodities last year, helping the supply chain to remain intact; this year, it has taken a more crucial role in fighting the Pandemic.
Amid the rising cases in the second wave of Covid-19 in India, the Railways has started the ‘Oxygen Express’ on 24th April which is supposed to deliver oxygen across the country to battle the acute shortage of medical oxygen for patients infected with the virus.
The Indian Railways, on receiving the first request, was able to build ramps within 24 hours, and has transported the first shipment of Oxygen from Kalamboli in Maharashtra to Vizag, and back up to Nasik.
The transportation of oxygen via train is much more efficient over long distances than road transportation. This transportation takes two days through rail and over three days by road. Trains can also run for 24 hours at a stretch whereas truck drivers need halts. To facilitate transportation further, green corridors have also been created, and monitoring of the movement is being done at an apex level.
This mode of transport has its dangers also. Oxygen transported in cryogenic state is an extremely hazardous chemical. The railways have to avoid sudden acceleration and deceleration, and consistently check the pressure. The Railway has taken up this challenge, mapped out routes, and trained people to effectively ferry oxygen to cities that need it the most.
To ensure the fastest delivery of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO), the Indian Railways has upped the standards for the Oxygen Express freight trains. These trains maintain an average speed of 55kms/hr over longer distances, running through the high priority green corridors created for them. The operational staff in these zones work round the clock to maintain timeliness. Technical stoppages and change of crew over different sections have also been reduced to just 1 min. Tracks are kept open and maintained with high alertness to maintain the speed of these lifesaving freight trains.
Source: PIB
Starting only less than a month ago, with the first shipment of 123 MT from Maharashtra on 24th April, 2021, the Railways has been able to hike up the process exponentially, overcoming several hurdles to successfully deliver more than 10300 metric tons of Liquid Medical oxygen as of 17th May 2021. Delivering nearly 600 tankers and with 160 Oxygen express trains having completed the journey, the Indian Railways delivered 800 MT of LMO daily all over India in the past few days, bringing relief to many states.
The Indian railways is picking up oxygen from states like Gujarat, Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Andhra Pradesh, and delivering it to states like Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, MP, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, and UP.
Oxygen delivery is a dynamic process, thus the figures are continuously updated. Yet according to the last press release, on the 17th of May, 521 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 2652 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 431 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 1290 MT in Haryana, 564 MT in Telangana, 40 MT in Rajasthan, 361 MT in Karnataka, 200 MT in Uttarakhand, 231 MT in Tamil Nadu, 40 MT in Punjab, 118 MT in Kerala and nearly 3734 MT in Delhi.
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The article is written by Supratik Mitra