The first Oxygen Express train to Karnataka arrived in Bengaluru on Tuesday after it left Jamshedpur in Jharkhand carrying 120 tonnes of liquid oxygen on May 10. It arrived at the Container Corporation India at Whitefield in Bengaluru.
The train arriving in Bengaluru contains six cryogenic containers -- a total of 120 tonnes of liquid oxygen. It comes at a time smaller hospitals in Bengaluru are reporting an acute shortage of liquid oxygen for medical purposes. Many hospitals in Bengaluru issued emergency appeals for oxygen in the past week. This included Arka Hospital, Medax Hospital, Mediscope Hospital, Chaitanya Hospital, BR Ambedkar Hospital, Railway Hospital, among others.
The express train left at 3:30 am on May 10 from Jamshedpur and was set to reach Bengaluru on Tuesday morning. The distance of the journey is around 1860 km and a green corridor was created for the train.
The South Western Railways has built a ramp in Whitefield to help the movement of tankers. Officials said that if required, they will use facilities at Doddaballapura to transport oxygen tankers.
Chief Secretary P Ravi Kumar had written a letter to the Railways requesting operations of the Oxygen Express. This was after Karnataka appealed for 1792 MT of oxygen daily. The state is currently allocated 965 MT per day. Liquid oxygen production in Karnataka is mainly in the northern district of Ballari. The state has a production capacity of 812 MT of oxygen daily.