Oxygen Express from Odisha arrives

Green corridor marked for uninterrupted movement of trains

Oxygen tankers on Oxygen Express special train at Sanatnagar station in Hyderabad on Sunday.

The South Central Railway’s Oxygen Express, loaded with five tankers of 124.26 tonnes of liquid oxygen, arrived at Sanatnagar goods line on Sunday afternoon. The special train commenced its journey from Angul in Odisha to Secunderabad - a distance of 1,334 km., in 32 hours, on Saturday night.

Five empty tankers were earlier moved from Secunderabad four days ago from the special train. The five tankers with liquid oxygen had to be handled carefully as it is a cryogenic cargo which has many limitations like maximum speed at which it can be carried, maximum acceleration and deceleration and loading restrictions, said CPRO Ch. Rakesh.

The train travelled at an average speed of 42 kmph from its starting station, and to ensure that the train reaches the destination at the fastest possible time, the railways have identified a green corridor for uninterrupted movement of these trains. Hence, the route mapping of the train along with green corridor was done taking into consideration factors like adequate clearance along the route in terms of curves, road under bridges, foot over brides, etc.

The Oxygen Express trains are operated at the request of the governments, with the States providing the tankers and the railways undertaking to bring the oxygen supplies to the requisitioning State in fastest feasible mode.

General Manager Gajanan Mallya informed that two empty Oxygen Express trains from Secunderabad have been operated so far from here, while the first train had five empty tankers, the second train was sent with four empty tankers on April 30. He assured that the railways will continue to provide utmost priority to the running of the Oxygen Express trains.

Any request received on this front will be immediately processed so as to operate the trains at the earliest. He advised all officers and staff to maintain continuous monitoring of the movement of this train along the green corridor.

So far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 813 metric tonnes liquid medical oxygen (LMO) -- to Maharashtra - 174 MT, Uttar Pradesh - 355 MT, Madhya Pradesh - 134.77 MT, Delhi - 70 MT and Haryana - 79 MT.