Army provides its rolling stocks to Railways for transportation of oxygen-laden trucks

Setting yet another example, the Indian Army on April 19 made available its rolling stocks to Railways for the transportation of oxygen-laden trucks to meet the emergency requirement of oxygen for COVID hospitals across the country. The rolling stocks were made available following formal requests by the Indian Railways. 

The Additional Directorate General of Public Information of the Indian army, confirmed the news, saying, "Based on a formal request by Indian Railways, the Indian army made available its critical rolling stocks for transportation of Oxygen laden trucks to meet the critical requirement of Oxygen for COVID hospitals across the country." Talking about the first request, he said, "The first request is for 32 wagons of which the first rake is likely to leave Panvel for Visakhapatnam for filling oxygen by the evening."

Railway to run 'Oxygen Express'

In a bid to help in the acute crisis of oxygen shortage, the Railway on Sunday decided to run 'Oxygen Express'. Through this initiative, which came as a response to Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra government's appeal, the Railways will run special trains to supply oxygen to State and Union Territories facing acute shortage of oxygen supply. A green corridor was being prepared for the movement of these special trains. The Ministry took to the official Twitter handle to announce this news. 

It is pertinent to mention here that a Ro-Ro service with 7 empty tankers has departed from Kalamboli goods yard for Vishakhapattanam steel plant siding at 20:05 hours on Monday, April 19. This is the first Oxygen Express train leaving from the Mumbai region to Vizag with oxygen supplies. Ro-Ro service with 7 empty tankers will move via Vasai Road, Jalgaon, Nagpur, Raipur to Visakhapatnam steel plant where it will be loaded with Liquid Medical Oxygen. 

"Railways have geared up to run Oxygen Express in response to its fight against COVID-19. Team Mumbai Division has built a ramp overnight within 24 hours at  Kalamboli goods yard to facilitate loading/unloading of tankers in/from flat wagons. The Ro-Ro service with 7 empty tankers departed from Kalamboli goods yard for Visakhapatnam steel plant siding at 8.05 pm today," the Central Railways in its press release stated."

COVID-19 tally in India

Meanwhile, for the fifth day straight, India breached the 2 lakh mark with a record single-day rise of 2,73,810 fresh COVID-19 cases. Maharashtra, Delhi and Karnataka emerged as the major contributors of fresh cases, with 68,631, 25, 462 and 19,067 fresh cases respectively. With this, the cumulative count in the country has mounted to 1,50,61,919. The death toll has reached 1.78 lakh, with 1,619  deaths in the last 24 hours.

(CREDIT-PTI/TWITTER@RAILMININDIA)