With all eyes on Indian Railways to pump oxygen to the Covid patients battling for their survival across the country, the national transporter is making it possible to deliver more than 140 MT liquid oxygen in the next 24 hours with nine tankers on the run to reach their destinations.
Besides severe crisis of beds in hospitals, the Ministry of Railways on Sunday re-mobilised its initiative of Covid Care Isolation Coaches which was devised during the initial wave of the pandemic last year.
Nearly 4,000 Covid Care Coaches with 64,000 beds, have positioned at various railway stations in the country, some of which have already served the isolation needs of patients in the first wave of Covid. In Delhi, 50 coaches (with 800 beds) are deployed at Shakurbasti station (4 patients are currently admitted & 25 coaches (with 400 beds) are made available at Anand Vihar Terminal.
To the much relief of patients, hospitals, authorities, five Oxygen Express Train was scheduled to reach Lucknow by Sunday night and remaining four containers of LMO which started from Bokaro are expected to reach Lucknow on Monday morning. One Oxygen Express train carrying four tankers (around 70 Metric tonnes of LMO) departed for Delhi from Raigarh, Chattisgarh on Sunday night.
So far, Oxygen Express have run between Mumbai to Vizag via Nagpur to Nashik and Lucknow to Bokaro and back. A total of 10 containers having nearly 150 tonnes of liquid Oxygen have been carried so far.
A senior railway ministry official said the railways have informed Delhi Government to obtain the road tankers and further the national transporter are ready for the movement of oxygen containers on container wagons from Durgapur to the national Capital.
“Indian Railway is fully prepared to carry Oxygen on several routes. For the delivery of more Oxygen to Maharashtra, Railways has planned to transport LMO from Jamnagar to Mumbai and for Nagpur/Pune from Vizag/Angul. Indian Railways has mapped the route from Angul to Secunderabad to deliver Liquid Medical Oxygen for Telangana. For Andhra Pradesh, it has been planned to transport oxygen Angul to Vijayawada,” mentioned the official.
For Madhya Pradesh, the railway has mapped the route from Jamshedpur to Jabalpur.
Further, as a measure of preparedness, Covid Care coaches have been readied to serve as additional health care facility for isolation of Covid patients with mild symptoms. These coaches have now been additionally fitted with conveniences viz. coolers, jute-mats to cater to the current hot weather conditions.
In this regard, the State Governments have been advised on the Modalities & Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in place and the availability of Covid care coaches.
At Nandurbar (Maharashtra), 21 coaches (with 378 beds) are positioned and currently, 55 patients are admitted at this facility.