Oxygen Express Begins Journey From Lucknow To Bokaro Through Varanasi On Green Corridor

Oxygen expresses are gearing up to transport liquid medical oxygen (LMO) on green corridors from Visakhapatnam and Bokaro on Thursday for Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh respectively.

Indian Railways is running the ‘oxygen express’ to transport and make available the much-needed oxygen to treat coronavirus patients as hospitals across the country are facing an acute shortage of the liquid medical oxygen.

The first oxygen express with LMO tankers will start its journey for Mumbai from Visakhapatnam on Thursday night. Tankers filled with LMO at Visakhapatnam are being transported through Ro-Ro service provided by the public transporter.

Another oxygen express started its journey from Lucknow to Bokaro through Varanasi to fulfil the requirements of medical oxygen in Uttar Pradesh.

For the movement of these trains, a green corridor has been created between Lucknow and Varanasi.

The distance of 270 kilometres was covered by the train in 4 hours and 20 minutes with an average speed of 62.35 kmph. Trucks would have taken more than a day to cover the distance.

Transportation of oxygen through trains is faster over long distances than road transport. Trains can run 24 hours in a day but truck drivers need to make halts etc.

In order to facilitate loading/unloading of tankers in/from flat wagons, a ramp is required. Also, due to restrictions of height of road over bridges and over head equipment at certain locations, road tanker T 1618 with a height of 3,320 mm was chosen as it was found feasible to be placed on flat wagons with height of 1,290 mm.

The railways has 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.