BENGALURU: Karnataka received 136 rail tankers with about 3,000 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO), the highest in South India.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Suneet Sharma, chairman and CEO of Railway Board, said railways delivered 1,401 oxygen tankers across the country.
Of this, Karnataka received 136 tankers.
It is followed by Andhra Pradesh (131), Tamil Nadu (128), Telangana (113) and Kerala (27).
Sharma said another 26 tankers with 504 tonnes of oxygen are en-route for Karnataka (12), Tamil Nadu (8), Andhra Pradesh (4) and Telangana (2).
States which received the most oxygen tankers in the country include Delhi (297), Uttar Pradesh (276) and Haryana (141).
Sharma said they are operating ‘Oxygen Express’ trains as per demand.
The initiative was launched on April 19 between Mumbai and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
“So far, 593 ‘Oxygen Express’ trains moved 1,401 tankers with 23,658 tonnes to 15 states,” he said.
He said oxygen transported by rail has increased from 174 tonnes on April 24 to 23,658 on June 2 (till 8am).
He said they have taken several steps to run ‘Oxygen Express’ trains including identifying suitable rail wagons, construction of ramps to load tankers on wagons at different locations, mapping of railway routes due to constraints of low height fixed structures, tunnels and overhead equipment, safety protocols due to cryogenic/ hazardous nature and intensive online real-time monitoring and coordination.