The first ‘Oxygen Express’ train to Tamil Nadu carrying four containers of 80 metric tonnes medical oxygen departed from Durgapur,West Bengal on the night of May 12 and arrived at the Tondiarpet container depot in Chennai early on May 14.
In a press release, the Southern Railway said the Oxygen Express carry cryogenic tankers mounted on flat-type wagons. The cryogenic tankers mounted on trucks and filled with LMO are transported by rail using the Roll on and Roll off (RO-RO) method. This RO-RO service will facilitate door-to-door delivery of oxygen at hospitals as per directives of the State government without having to unload from the railway wagon.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The Indian Railways has started this initiative of running Oxygen Express on a mission mode to meet the requirement of LMO for the treatment of COVID-19 patients in different parts of the country.
The railways has already delivered nearly 5,735 metric tonnes of LMO in more than 375 tankers to Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana.