Oxygen Express reaches Kota, Rajasthan gets 39 MT liquid O2

KOTA : The first Oxygen Express carrying 39 metric tonnes of medical-grade liquid oxygen for Rajasthan reached Kota railway station on Friday, officials said, bringing some relief for the state that is battling a shortage of the life-saving gas.

The train brought oxygen from Reliance’s refinery-cumpetrochemical complex in Jamnagar in Gujarat on the initiative of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, who is also the Member of Parliament from Kota.

An oxygen tanker carrying 28 MT medical-grade liquid oxygen reached Kota from Jamnagar by road on Thursday late evening.

Senior divisional commercial manager, Kota railway division, Ajay Kumar Pal said three tankers on the Oxygen Express each contained 12 MT of liquid oxygen and another tanker has 15 MT. “The Oxygen Express covered 920 km in 20 hours to reach Kota from Jamnagar,” he said.

About the allocation of medical-grade liquid oxygen, Kota district collector Ujjawal Singh Rathore said the tanker containing 15 MT oxygen has been allocated for Kota, and two tankers each containing 12 MT oxygen have been sent to Jaipur and Jhalawar districts.

“With arrival of 15 MT medical-grade liquid oxygen through Oxygen Express and 28 MT by a tanker through road, Kota has got 43 MT liquid oxygen,” he said.

Speaker Om Birla said the Oxygen Express would help meet the medical-grade oxygen needs of Covid-19 patients in Rajasthan.

“The oxygen that came through the train and by road was in addition to the allocation by the Centre to the state,” he said.

“Rajasthan will soon get 167,000 Remdesivir injections, 250 oxygen concentrators and nearly 150 regulators for Covid-19 patients.”