OPERATION OXYGEN: TANKERS RUSH TO PLANTS

LUCKNOW: Soon after the Oxygen Express train reached the Charbagh railway station here with around 30,000 litres of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) at around 6.30am on Saturday, the onboard tankers were allowed to deboard and they were rushed to different oxygen plants in Lucknow and its neighbourhood.

The total volume of oxygen transported to Lucknow would be enough to meet half the existing demand in the state capital, said additional chief secretary (Home) Awanish Kumar Awasthi who supervised the entire operation. He said indeed it was a big operation.

“Of the two tankers, one was rushed to a gas agency—Sharang Gases in Barabanki — where it unloaded 7,500 litres of LMO while the remaining amount of oxygen was delivered to another gas station in the Nadarganj area. The other tanker delivered gas in BKT (Bakshi Ka Talab) and other gas station in order to ensure uniform supply of oxygen in the entire city,” said another senior government official who was the part of the operation.

In all, the state capital got around 22,500 litres of oxygen. As per the records with FSDA, the city currently has two oxygen manufacturing plants— Murari Gases Private Ltd and Parerthat Industrial Enterprises Pvt Ltd. Besides, there are four oxygen refilling plants in the state capital. FSDA officials said that after 15 April, around 6,800 to 7,000 oxygen cylinders were in demand on a daily basis that was resulting in a crisis. Officials also said that major hospitals like SGPGI, KGMU and Lohia Hospital had their own liquid oxygen tank of 20,000 litre capacity each.