Bengaluru: Indian Railways continues to render its phenomenal service in the ongoing covid crisis. As it continues to transport the all-important oxygen to several parts of the country, a statement from the Railways ministry states that in a single day (May 23), the oxygen expresses delivered a record 1142 MT of oxygen. It might be recalled that the previous best was 1118 MT on 20th May 2021.


Overcoming all hurdles and finding new solutions, Indian Railways is continuing its journey of bringing relief by delivering Liquid Medical Oxygen(LMO) to various states across the country. So far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 16023 MT of LMO in more than 977 tankers to various states across the country.

It may be noted that 247 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far and brought relief to various States.

It is worth noting that oxygen expresses started their deliveries 30 days back on 24th April in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT. Within one month time Indian Railways has delivered more than 16000 MT of LMO to 14 states across the country.

It is Indian Railways endeavour to deliver as much LMO as possible in the shortest time possible to the requesting states.

Oxygen relief by Oxygen Expresses reached out to 14 states namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam.

Till the time of this release, 614 MT of Oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3649 MT in Uttar Pradesh, 633 MT in Madhya Pradesh, 4600 MT in Delhi, 1759 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 1063 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 1024 MT in Tamil Nadu, 730 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 225 MT in Punjab, 246 MT in Kerala, 976 MT in Telangana and 80 MT in Assam.

Indian Railways has mapped different routes with Oxygen supply locations and keeps itself ready with any emerging need of the States. States provide tankers to the Indian Railways for bringing LMO.

Criss crossing the country, Indian Railways is picking up oxygen from places like Hapa , Baroda, Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in the East and then delivering it to States of Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh & Assam in complex operational route planning scenarios.

In order to ensure that Oxygen relief reaches in the fastest time possible, Railways is creating new standards and unprecedented benchmarks in running of Oxygen Express Freight Trains. The average speed of these critical Freight trains is way above 55 in most cases over long distances. Running on high priority Green Corridor, with a highest sense of urgency, operational teams of various zones are working round the clock in most challenging circumstances to ensure that Oxygen reaches in fastest possible time frame. Technical stoppages have been reduced to 1 minute for crew changes over different sections.

Tracks are kept open and high alertness is maintained to ensure that Oxygen Express keeps zipping through.

All this is done in a manner that speed of other Freight Operation doesn't get reduced as well.

Running of new Oxygen is a very dynamic exercise and figures keep getting updated all the time. More loaded Oxygen Expresses are expected to start their journeys later in the night.