Govt identifies 2,400 drivers to tide over fatigue of oxygen tanker pilots

NEW DELHI: In its bid to ensure no shortage of drivers to keep the fleets of road oxygen tankers running amid concerns of driver fatigue, who have been behind the wheels, the government has identified 2,400 more drivers for this purpose.
The government is also roping in ex-servicemen, who have long experience in driving heavy vehicles carrying fuel through tough terrains and also for some imported vehicles which have steering wheels on the left.
Union road transport secretary Giridhar Aramane, who heads the empowered group-2, told TOI that some of these identified drivers have the licence to drive vehicles carrying hazardous materials (HAZMAT) such as fuel, gas and acid. He added that those who don’t have the necessary licence will be trained in the next three week.
For example, in UP, a road oxygen tanker is followed by one or two cars with additional drivers to ensure non-stop travel from origin to destination. Currently, there are little over 1,750 oxygen tankers in the country including the recently imported ones.
Aramane said due to the effort of all stakeholders the medical oxygen production has been ramped up significantly in the past month. For example, the medical oxygen production was around 3,000 tonnes a day in September 2020 and it reduced to only 1,300 tonnes in January. In the past three weeks, it has increased from 4,500 tonnes to nearly 9,000 tonnes. “We are transporting the entire quantity,” the secretary said.
This is corroborated from the data obtained from UP where the daily lifting of medical oxygen has increased from barely 250 tonnes a day to nearly 1,100 tonnes per day in the past three weeks.
Meanwhile, officials said the Indian Railways has done a commendable job by operating the Oxygen Express trains by delivering more than 4,700 tonnes of the medical oxygen till Monday to Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Telangana and Rajasthan. Railway Board chairman, Suneet Sharma said they are running these trains at maximum permissible speed for fastest delivery of the medical oxygen.
“Besides the speed, what is more important in case of railways is predictability as there is no chance of the trains getting delayed and more so when the railways is creating green corridors for them,” said a government official.