Amid severe shortage of medical oxygen, the Indian Railways on Thursday said two ‘Oxygen Express’ trains with liquid medical oxygen tankers will begin their journey for Maharashtra (from Andhra Pradesh) and Uttar Pradesh (from Jharkhand) on Thursday night.
“Indian Railway is running Oxygen Express in response to its fight against Covid-19...Oxygen Expresses are getting prepared to leave with Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) from Visakhapatnam and Bokaro today for Maharashtra and UP, respectively,” the Railways said in a statement.
Tankers filled with LMO are being transported by the Indian Railways’ roll on-roll of (Ro-Ro) service.
The second ‘Oxygen Express’ was sent from Lucknow to Bokaro via Varanasi to load liquid oxygen. “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,” the Railways said, adding that transportation of oxygen by trains is faster over long distances than by road.