How Indian Railways is trying to meet oxygen demand across states

In a bid to meet the enormous demand for oxygen across the country, the Indian Railways is looking to ferry over 360 metric tonnes (MT) of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) by Tuesday, railways officials have told ThePrint.

One MT of medical-grade LMO is equal to 875.7 litres, and according to informal estimates, a hospital with up to 150 Covid-19 patients has an estimated requirement of up to 9 MT a day. Therefore, one oxygen tanker is expected to cater to the oxygen demands of up to two medium-sized hospitals for a day.

Explaining the capacity of each tanker, on board trains dubbed the ‘Oxygen Express’ in which LMO is being supplied, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said, “Each tanker (on the Oxygen Express) carries about 15-16 MT. We have selected tankers that are up to a height of 3.5 m to meet clearances available with Railways. So far, we have moved 10 tankers, seven to Maharashtra and three to UP. We have transported almost 150 MT of oxygen to these two states.”

Between Sunday and Monday, up to 140 additional MT of LMO were in transit, according to railway officials.

“Currently, nine tankers are already running, of which five will reach Lucknow by tonight and the remaining four containers of LMO, which have already started from Bokaro, are expected to reach Lucknow tomorrow early,” a railway official said Sunday.