Oxygen Express: India's national transporter becomes life-saver of covid patients

New Delhi, India (Urban Transport News): Indian Railways took the movement of oxygen express as a challenge and successfully ran the first oxygen express from Kalamboli to Vizag and back up to Nasik. The moment railways got the request for and made ramps at various places immediately for the movement of liquid medical oxygen tankers. It must be appreciated the work done by the team in Mumbai as the ramp was made in only 24 hrs time at Kalamboli.

For the movement of Ro-Ro service Railways had to map the entire route considering the various constraints like Ghat sections, Road Over Bridges, Tunnels, Curves, Platform canopies, Over Head Equipment etc. at certain locations. Because height is an important aspect in this movement, Railways mapped the route via Vasai. The model of road tanker T1618 with a height of 3320 mm was found feasible to be placed on flat wagons. The longer route via Vasai was charted as Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC) is not permitted to travel in Ghat sections over the Mumbai division.

As oxygen is a cryogenic and hazardous chemical, Railways have to avoid sudden acceleration, deceleration, have to check pressures in between, especially when it is in a loaded condition. Yet, railways took it as a challenge, mapped the route, trained people and could take these particular size tankers to the Vizag via Vasai, Surat, Bhusaval, Nagpur routes.

The distance between Kalamboli and Vizag is more than 1850kms which was completed by these tankers only in about 50 hours. 7 tankers with more than 100 tons LMO (Liquid Medical Oxygen) were loaded in 10 hrs and transported back to Nagpur in only 21 hrs. Railways have unloaded 3 tankers in Nagpur yesterday and the remaining 4 tankers have reached Nashik at 10.25 am on April 24, 2021, i.e. in just 12 hrs time from Nagpur to Nashik.

"Transportation of Oxygen through trains is faster over long distances than road transport. Transportation through Rail takes 2 days while through road it takes 3 days. Trains can run 24 hours a day but truck drivers need to take halts etc. The green corridor is created for the faster movement of these tankers and monitoring of movement was done at the apex level as we know that it’s a difficult time for our Nation and the Nation is first for us," said the official statement issued by Indian Railways.

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 the Government of India. Total 5,601 train coaches were converted as Covid Care Centers by Indian Railway. Presently, a total of 3,816 Coaches is available for 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 are being deployed as per demand by State Government.

As of April 24, 2021, 21 Covid Care Coaches have been deployed at Nandurbar District in Maharashtra under Western Railway. A total of 47 patients have been admitted to these Covid Care Coaches.