Secunderabad, (Asian independent) The first empty Oxygen Express from the South Central Railway (SCR) started from Secunderabad on Wednesday.
SCR officials said the Oxygen Express containing five tankers set off from the Secunderabad Cantonment Military Siding for Angul in Odisha, where the empty tankers will be filled with liquid oxygen. Thereafter, the Oxygen Express will return to Telangana with its cargo of medical grade oxygen, to be used for Covid patients.
This is also the first Oxygen Express (empty) train to embark from the state of Telangana.
The Indian Railways has started operating Oxygen Express trains on a mission mode to meet the growing oxygen requirement in different parts of the country.
Under this initiative, tankers filled with liquid medical oxygen are being transported by Railways through the Ro-Ro (Roll on – Roll Off) service. In this way, the transportation of these tankers can be achieved with minimum enroute detention.
As part of this initiative, SCR has moved the empty Oxygen Express at the request of the government of Telangana. The zone identified the station capable of handling the Oxygen Express in the twin cities area.
Immediately on receipt of the request from the state government, the originating station as well the green corridor to move the Oxygen Express was mapped till the destination station.
The green corridor is mapped so as to ensure faster movement of these tankers. As height is one of the important aspect of moving the tankers by trains, the green corridor is mapped taking into consideration various constraints like curves, road over bridges, platform canopies, over head equipment etc., along the route. Further, considering its importance, the movement of these trains is being monitored continuously at the apex level.
Gajanan Mallya, General Manager, SCR, advised the officials to continue taking proactive steps in case of any request for further Oxygen Express movement over the zone.
He also instructed all the divisions to give utmost priority to run these trains and continuously monitor their movements over the zone.