Oxygen Express ferries 150 MT

The Indian Railways has ferried 150 metric tonnes (MT) of oxygen to Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh so far and will move a similar quantity by Monday. Though just a blip compared with the nearly 6,600 MT medical oxygen produced per day, the Railways has been able to open a pathway from large infrastructure projects to cities.

For perspective, one MT of medical-grade liquid oxygen is equal to 875.7 litres. Batra Hospital in Delhi had 160 Covid-19 patients in Intensive Care Unit and others in the ward. According to their submissions before the Delhi High court, they require 7,0008,000 litres of oxygen every day, which translates to around 9 MT per day. So roughly one tanker of the Oxygen Express can meet the requirement of two mediumsized hospitals for day.

Till now there have been two complete Oxygen Express journeys, one from Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) to Nagpur (Maharashtra) and the other from Bokaro (Jharkhand) to Lucknow (UP). Nagpur received around 90 MT while Lucknow got 50 MT of medical oxygen. Delhi, one of the worst-affected states, is set to welcome its first Oxygen Express soon. There will be four tankers on this Oxygen Express, which will carry around 70 MT of oxygen.

Suneet Sharma, chairman of the Railway Board, said, “Regarding Delhi, the talks are on, we are likely to move about four tankers from the Jindal Steel plant in Raigarh (in Chhattisgarh). I am told the tankers are getting loaded there, we have provided ready wagons and they will be moved as soon as they are ready.”

Elaborating on the contours of the Oxygen Express, Sharma said, “Each tanker (on the Oxygen Express) carries about 15-16 MT. We have selected tankers that are up to a height of 3.5 metres to meet clearances available with Railways. So far, we have moved 10 tankers, seven to Maharashtra and three to UP. We have transported almost 150 MT of oxygen in these two states.”