By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Indian Railway is running Oxygen Express in response to its fight against Covid-19 . Oxygen Expresses with Liquid Medical Oxygen(LMO) tankers have arrived at Nashik & at Lucknow for Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh respectively.
Few Containers were also unloaded at Nagpur and Varanasi enroute to supply LMO in these region. Also, third Oxygen Express started its journey from Lucknow this morning.
States like Andhra Pradesh, Delhi are in consultation with Railways to run more such trains.
It may be noted that tankers filled with LMO at Visakhapatnam & Bokaro are presently being transported through Ro-Ro service of Indian Railways.
To fulfil 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.
A total of 10 containers having nearly 150 tonnes of Oxygen have been carried so far.
Transportation of Oxygen through Trains is faster over long distances than road transport. Trains run 24×7 unlike road transports.Indian 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.
Indian Railways is making an all out effort to supplement the health care efforts of Government of India. Total 5601 train coaches were converted as Covid Care Centers by Indian Railway. Presently, total 3816 Coaches are available for the use as Covid Care Coaches. The Coaches can be used for very mild cases that can be clinically assigned to the Covid Care centers as per guidelines issued by MoHFW. These covid care coaches is being deployed as per demand by State Government.
As on 24th April 2021, 21 Covid Care Coaches have been deployed at Nandurbar District in Maharashtra under Western Railway. Total 47 patient have been admitted in these Covid Care Coaches.
Madhya Pradesh Government has requested Indian Railways to deploy 20 Covid Care Coaches at Bhopal and 20 Covid Care Coaches at Habibganj Railway Stations in West Central Railway. These Covid Care Coaches shall be operational & handed over to State Government from 25th April 2021.
In Northern Railway, 50 Covid Care Coaches at Shakur Basti, 25 Covid Care Coaches at Anand Vihar, 10 at Varanasi, 10 at Bhadohi and 10 Covid Care Coaches at Faizabad have been deployed by Indian Railways. Total 3 patient have been admitted in Covid Care Coaches placed at Shakur Basti.
