The first Oxygen Express to Assam with 80 MT of liquid medical oxygen in 4 tankers arrived in Guwahati at around 11.30 AM on Sunday.

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was present at the time of the arrival of the Oxygen Express in Guwahati.

Chief minister Sarma has expressed thanks to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government for sending the medical oxygen through the Oxygen Express.

“We’re indeed Grateful Hon PM Sri@narendramodi. On behalf of people of Assam, I express our sincere gratitude to the GOI for sending 80 MT medical #Oxygen through #OxygenExpress. This bolsters our confidence & our oxygen stock in a critical time,” chief minister Sarma tweeted.

Overcoming all hurdles and finding new solutions, Indian Railways is continuing its journey of bringing relief by delivering Liquid Medical Oxygen(LMO) to various states across the country.

So far, Indian Railways has delivered more than 15284 MT of LMO in more than 936 tankers to various states across the country.

So far, 234 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey and brought relief to various states.

Till the time of this release, 9 loaded Oxygen Expresses are on run with more than 569 MT of LMO in 31 tankers, the Railway ministry said in a statement.

Delivery of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) by Oxygen Expresses to Karnataka crossed 1000 MT.

“Oxygen Expresses have been delivering more than 800 MT of LMO to the nation each day now.  It is Indian Railways endeavour to deliver as much LMO as possible in the shortest time possible to the requesting states,” it said.

“Oxygen relief by Oxygen Expresses reached out to 14 states namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam,” the statement said.

So far, 614 MT of oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3609 MT in UP, 566 MT in MP, 4300 MT in Delhi, 1759 MT in Haryana, 98 MT in Rajasthan, 1063 MT in Karnataka, 320 MT in Uttarakhand, 857 MT in Tamil Nadu, 642 MT in Andhra Pradesh, 153 MT in Punjab, 246 MT in Kerala, 976 MT in Telangana and 80 MT in Assam.

Indian Railways has mapped different routes with oxygen supply locations and keeps itself ready with any emerging need of the states.

States provide tankers to the Indian Railways for bringing LMO.

Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 29 days back on April 24 in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT.

Criss-crossing the country, Indian Railways is picking up oxygen from places like Hapa, Baroda, Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in the East and then delivering it to States of Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh & Assam in complex operational route planning scenarios.

In order to ensure that oxygen relief reaches in the fastest time possible, the Indian Railways is creating new standards and unprecedented benchmarks in running of Oxygen Express Freight Trains.

The average speed of these critical Freight trains is way above 55 in most cases over long distances.

Running on high priority Green Corridor, with a highest sense of urgency, operational teams of various zones are working round the clock in most challenging circumstances to ensure that Oxygen reaches in fastest possible time frame.

Technical stoppages have been reduced to 1 minute for crew changes over different sections.

Tracks are kept open and high alertness is maintained to ensure that Oxygen Express keeps zipping through.

All this is done in a manner that speed of other Freight Operation doesn’t get reduced as well.