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Tag: indian railways

  • Cabinet approves allocation of 5MHz spectrum for railways to improve communication and signalling

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved allocation of 5 MHz spectrum in the 700 MHz band to Indian Railways for improving its communication and signalling systems, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said.

    He said it will help improve safety of passengers on the transport network.

    The project with an estimated cost of Rs 25,000 crore will be completed in the next five years.

    The railways currently relies on optical fibre for its communication network but with the allocation of fresh spectrum, it will be able to use high-speed radio on a real-time basis.

    It will help in augmenting both communication and signalling networks of the railways, the minister said.

    “Cabinet approves allotment of 5 MHz spectrum in 700 MHz band to Indian Railways for public safety and security services at stations and in trains; estimated investment is over Rs 25,000 Crore; Project to be completed in next five years,” a government spokesperson tweeted.

  • Railways so far delivered over 21,392 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen to 15 states

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Railways has delivered over 21,392 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen in more than 1,274 tankers to 15 states, the national transporter said Sunday amid the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    So far, 313 Oxygen Express trains have completed their journey while five loaded trains are on the run with more than 406 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen in 23 tankers.

    Liquid Medical Oxygen delivery to Haryana and Karnataka has crossed 2,000 tonnes each while Tamil Nadu and Telangana each have received over 1,800 tonnes of the life-saving gas.

    Oxygen Express trains started their deliveries on April 24 with Maharashtra receiving a load of 126 tonnes.

    These freight trains have reached out to 15 states –Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Assam.

    So far, 614 tonnes of oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,797 tonnes in Uttar Pradesh, 656 tonnes in Madhya Pradesh, 5,476 tonnes in Delhi, 2,023 tonnes in Haryana, 98 tonnes in Rajasthan, 2,115 tonnes in Karnataka, 320 tonnes in Uttarakhand, 1,808 tonnes in Tamil Nadu, 1,738 tonnes in Andhra Pradesh, 225 tonnes in Punjab, 380 tonnes in Kerala, 1,858 tonnes in Telangana, 38 tonnes in Jharkhand and 240 tonnes in Assam.

    Till now, Oxygen Express trains offloaded liquid medical oxygen in 39 cities, including Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur, Bareilly, Gorakhpur and Agra in Uttar Pradesh, Sagar, Jabalpur, Katni and Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur, Nashik, Pune, Mumbai and Solapur in Maharashtra, Hyderabad in Telangana, and Faridabad and Gurgaon in Haryana.

    The Indian Railways has mapped different routes with oxygen supply locations and keeps itself ready with any emerging need of the states which provide tankers to the national transporter for bringing the life-saving gas amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Crisscrossing the country, the Railways is picking up oxygen from places like Hapa, Baroda and Mundra in the west and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, and Angul in the East and then delivering it to Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam in complex operational route planning scenarios. 

  • Oxygen Express surpasses 15,000 tonnes in deliveries; Assam latest to get consignment 

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The railways has so far delivered 15,284 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in 936 tankers to various states through its Oxygen Express service, the national transporter said on Sunday.

    So far, 234 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey and brought relief to various states, while nine loaded Oxygen Expresses are currently on the run with more than 569 tonnes of LMO in 31 tankers.

    The first Oxygen Express to Assam with 80 tonnes of LMO in four tankers reached Assam on Sunday.

    The delivery of LMO by Oxygen Expresses to Karnataka has crossed the 1,000-tonne mark, the railways said in a statement.

    On an average, Oxygen Expresses have been delivering over 800 tonnes of LMO to various states each day now.

    Oxygen relief by Oxygen Expresses reached 14 states — Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam.

    So far, 614 tonnes of oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 3,609 tonne in Uttar Pradesh, 566 tonnes in Madhya Pradesh, 4,300 tonnes in Delhi, 1,759 tonnes in Haryana, 98 tonnes in Rajasthan, 1,063 tonnes in Karnataka, 320 tonnes in Uttarakhand, 857 tonnes in Tamil Nadu, 642 tonnes in Andhra Pradesh, 153 tonnes in Punjab, 246 tonnes in Kerala, 976 tonnes in Telangana and 80 tonnes in Assam.

    The railways has mapped different routes with oxygen supply locations and keep themselves ready with any emerging need of states.

    States provide tankers to the Indian Railways for bringing LMO.

    Oxygen Expresses started their deliveries 29 days back on April 24 in Maharashtra with a load of 126 tonnes.

    Its first service began when empty tankers left Mumbai on April 19 to be loaded with the life-saving gas.

    Criss-crossing the country, the Indian Railways is picking up oxygen from places such as Hapa, Baroda, Mundra in the West and Rourkela, Durgapur, Tatanagar, Angul in the East and then delivering it to states of Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Assam in complex operational route planning scenarios.

    The average speed of these critical freight trains is way above 55 kmph in most cases over long distances.

    Running on high priority Green Corridor, with a highest sense of urgency, operational teams of various zones are working round the clock in most challenging circumstances to ensure that oxygen reaches in fastest possible time frame, .

    Technical stoppages have been reduced to one minute for crew changes over different sections.

    On Saturday, in a first, an Oxygen Express train piloted by an ‘All Female Crew’ arrived in the Bengaluru with 120 tonnes of medical oxygen from Jamshedpur.

  • Railways delivers record single-day load of over 1,018 MT of oxygen

    By ANI
    NEW DELHI: In a biggest single day load, more than 1,018 MT of Liquid Medical Oxygen (LMO) has been delivered to various states in the country via 13 Oxygen Expresses, the Railways said on Friday.

    The Oxygen Expresses had been delivering nearly 800 MT of LMO to the nation each day for the last few days.

    In its statement today, Railways said 208 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey, delivering 13,319 MT of LMO in more than 814 tankers to various states across the country so far.

    Oxygen relief by Oxygen Expresses has reached out to 13 states, namely Uttarakhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Telangana, Punjab, Kerala, Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh.

    As per the latest data released by the ministry, Delhi has received the most oxygen relief with 4,110 MT, followed by Uttar Pradesh with nearly 3,338 MT. Maharashtra has received 614 MT of oxygen relief so far, while Haryana and Punjab received 1,619 MT and 153 MT respectively.

    Telangana has received 772 MT and Tamil Nadu 649 MT oxygen relief. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala have been delivered 714 MT, 292 MT, and 118 MT of LMO respectively.

    Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttarakhand got 521 MT, 98 MT, and 320 MT of oxygen relief.

    The Railways have mapped different routes with Oxygen supply locations and have kept themselves ready with any emerging need of the states. The states provide tankers to the Railways for bringing LMO.

    Oxygen Express started with its delivery of oxygen relief days back on April 24 in Maharashtra with a load of 126 MT.

    To ensure that oxygen relief reaches in the fastest time possible, Railways has created new standards and unprecedented benchmarks in the running of Oxygen Express Freight Trains, the ministry informed.

    The average speed of these critical Freight trains, in most cases, is way above 55 over long distances. These trains run on high priority Green Corridor, with the highest sense of urgency.

    The operational teams of various zones have also been working round the clock in these challenging circumstances to ensure that Oxygen reaches in the fastest possible time frame.

    Railways said that technical stoppages have also been reduced to 1 minute for crew changes over different sections. “Tracks are kept open and high alertness is maintained to ensure that Oxygen Express keeps zipping through. All this is done in a manner that speed of other Freight Operation does not get reduced as well”, the ministry added. (ANI)

  • Oxygen Express: Nearly 6,260 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen delivered since April 19, says Railways

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Railways has delivered nearly 6,260 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) onboard 100 ‘Oxygen Express’ trains since April 19 when it started its first such service, an official statement said on Wednesday.

    The Railways delivered 800 tonnes of LMO to the nation on Tuesday, it said.

    “One hundred Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far and brought relief to various states. It is the Indian Railways’ endeavour to deliver as much LMO as possible in the shortest time possible to the requesting states. So far, nearly 6,260 tonnes of of LMO has been delivered in 396 tankers,” the statement said.

    Till now, 407 tonnes of oxygen has been offloaded in Maharashtra, nearly 1,680 tonnes in Uttar Pradesh, 360 tonnes in Madhya Pradesh, 939 tonnes in Haryana, 123 tonnes in Telangana, 40 tonnes in Rajasthan, 120 tonnes in Karnataka, and more than 2,404 tonnes in Delhi, it said.

    The first Oxygen Express train to Uttarakhand with 120 tonnes of the life-saving gas from Tatanagar in Jharkhand and the first such train to Pune carrying more than 50 tonnes of oxygen from Angul in Odisha reached their destinations on Tuesday night, the statement said.

    More loaded Oxygen Express trains are expected to start their journeys on Wednesday night, it said.

  • 1,952 employees succumbed to Covid-19; 1000 infected daily: Indian Railways

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: As many as 1,952 employees of the Indian Railways have succumbed to coronavirus so far and around 1,000 are getting infected on a daily basis, a senior official said on Monday.

    The Railways is one of the largest employers in not just the country but the world with around 13 lakh employees.

    “Railways is not different from any other state or territory and we are also getting COVID cases. We are in the business of transport and have to move freight and people. Around 1,000 (COVID) cases are reported daily,” Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said.

    “We have our hospitals, we have augmented the number of beds, we have built oxygen plants in rail hospitals. We take care of our staff. As of now, we have 4,000 beds occupied by staff and their families. Our effort is to see that they recover quickly. As of yesterday, 1,952 rail employees have died due to COVID-19 since March last year,” he added.

    A couple of days ago, the All India Railwaymen’s Federation, a rail union, had written to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal demanding compensation at par with frontline workers for railwaymen who lost their lives while working during the coronavirus crisis.

    In the letter, they said the men deserved Rs 50 lakh as compensation, same as that announced for frontline workers and not Rs 25 lakh which is paid to them.

    Shiva Gopal Mishra, General Secretary of the All India Railwaymen’s Federation said in the letter that more than one lakh have been infected by the virus, 65,000 have recovered and joined their duties while 1,500 have lost their lives due to coronavirus.

    Sharma said the Railways was concerned about the safety of all railwaymen and took all necessary steps to minimise their exposure.

    Speaking on the ‘Oxygen Express’, Sharma said that the Railways has delivered nearly 4,700 tonne of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in more than 295 tankers to various states across the country since April 19.

    On Sunday, Oxygen Express’ delivered 831 tonne of LMO, a record for a single day.

    So far, 75 Oxygen Express’ have already completed their journey, he said.

    Till now, 293 tonne of LMO has been offloaded in Maharashtra, 1,334 tonne in Uttar Pradesh, 306 tonne in Madhya Pradesh, 598 tonne in Haryana, 123 tonne in Telangana, 40 tonne in Rajasthan and 2,011 tonne in Delhi, he said.

    The first Oxygen Express to Karnataka has also started its journey from Tatanagar in Jharkhand and is on the way to Bengaluru with 120 tonne of oxygen.

  • Haryana to get its first Oxygen Express soon; Railways ferries 510 tonnes of O2 in 10 days

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Haryana will get its first Oxygen Express train over the next few days with five tankers leaving Faridabad on Wednesday to load the life-saving gas from Rourkela in Odisha, the railways said.

    Since April 19, the railways’ Oxygen Express trains have delivered a cumulative 510 tonnes of oxygen to Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh, it said.

    “The Haryana government has also requested railways for Oxygen Express. Currently, tankers are being loaded in Faridabad, which will be sent for filling to Rourkela. As of now, It is planned that two Oxygen Express trains with a capacity of five tankers each will be run specifically for Haryana,” the railways said.

    The first Oxygen Express train was pushed into service on Aril 19 when seven trucks left Mumbai for Vizag to load oxygen.

    ALSO READ: Haryana’s COVID situation worse than Delhi, says Abhay Chautala

    These trucks were loaded on flat wagons and carried to the loading location.

    Each tanker of the Oxygen Express trains can carry around 16 tonnes of medical oxygen and these trains travel at a speed of around 65 kmph.

    Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh received its first Oxygen Express train carrying more than 64 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen early Wednesday morning.

    These tankers were unloaded at various locations across the state like Jabalpur (one), Bhopal (two) and Sagar (three), it said.

    The fourth Oxygen Express destined for Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh will reach the city on Wednesday carrying three tankers of liquid medical oxygen, the railways said.

    “Another empty rake is on its way from Lucknow to Bokaro, which will bring another set of oxygen tankers replenishing oxygen supply to Uttar Pradesh. Continuous Oxygen Express to Uttar Pradesh is ensuring uninterrupted oxygen replenishment to the residents of UP,” the railways said.

    So far, railways has delivered 202 tonnes of oxygen to Uttar Pradesh, 174 tonnes to Maharashtra, 70 tonnes to Delhi and 64 tonnes to Madhya Pradesh, it said.

  • Railways’ plan for April-May: 330 additional trains, 674 trips to clear rush in high demand regions

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The railways plans to run 674 additional services between April and May to destinations having high demand like Gorakhpur, Patna, Muzaffarpur, Varanasi, Guwahati, Allahabad, Bokaro, the national transporter said Sunday.

    While the railways has maintained that it has not experienced any extra rush of passengers due to the heightening coronavirus pandemic in the country, ground reports suggest that there has been a surge in the number of migrant workers leaving cities for their home states.

    Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma in a presentation on Sunday said that 70 per cent of train services are operational at the moment and the railways is running additional trains wherever there is demand.

    Currently, the national transporter is running 1,514 specials trains on an average per day and 5,387 suburban services per day.

    It has also pushed into service 28 special trains as clones of highly patronized trains and running 984 passenger services.

    “Despite COVID, trains will continue to run.

    Wherever there is demand, we are increasing services.

    We can rationalise service where demand is less.

    Over 70 per cent of the trains are currently in operation,” Sharma said.

    Of the 674 trips by 330 additional trains, Central Railway is running 143 trains (377 trips), Western Railway, 154 trains (212 trips), Northern Railway, 27 trains (27 trips), East Central Railway, two trains (four trips), North Eastern Railway, nine trains (14 trips), North Central Railway, one train (10 trips) and South Western Railway, three trains (30 trips).

    Out of the 330 additional trains, 101 are from the Mumbai area and 21 are from the Delhi area.

    “Total trains 330 (674 trips) have been planned.

    The trains are for destinations having high demand like Gorakhpur, Patna, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur, Varanasi, Guwahati, Manduadih, Barauni, Prayagraj, Bokaro, Ranchi, Lucknow and Kolkata,” the presentation from CRB said.

     

  • Oxygen Express with 70 tonnes of oxygen to reach Delhi by Monday night: Railways

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The first Oxygen Express train for Delhi carrying around 70 tonnes of the life-saving gas will depart from Jindal Steel Works plant in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh on Sunday night, a senior official said.

    The train, with four tankers, will reach Delhi by Monday night, Railway Board Chairman Suneet Sharma said.

    The railways has chalked out plans to transport medical oxygen from Angul, Kalingnagar, Rourkela and Raigarh to Delhi and NCR region, Sharma said, adding the Delhi government has been advised to get road tankers ready to obtain the oxygen.

    “First Oxygen Express for the national capital carrying four tankers with 70 tonnes of liquid medical oxygen will depart tonight for Delhi Cantonment from Jindal Steel Works, Raigarh.

    It will reach Delhi by Monday night,” the railway board chairman said.

    Every few hours, as it has been for the last days, hospitals across the national capital and its suburbs have been sending out desperate messages seeking help on social media and other platforms, flagging their dwindling stocks of oxygen.

    In view of the high demand for oxygen in the country following a record spike in coronavirus cases, the railways has decided to run Oxygen Express trains to transport liquid medical oxygen and oxygen cylinders across the country.

    Tankers are being transported on flat wagons by trains for quick supply of medical oxygen.

    “We have carried 150 tonnes of oxygen to Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra till now and by tonight we will move 150 tonnes more.

    About Delhi, we are readying four tankers from Jindal Steel Plant in Raigarh,” Sharma said.

    “Plans are ready to move oxygen for Delhi and NCR region from plants in Angul, Raigarh, Kalingnagar and Rourkela.

    We have asked the state government to keep their trucks ready,” the official said, adding that wagons are ready for the movement of oxygen containers on container wagons from Durgapur to Delhi.

    Officials said the Delhi government in its letter to the railways has asked it to load liquid medical oxygen from nine locations.

    “These have been examined and the feasibility analysed after which the state government was informed that oxygen can be transported from seven out of these nine locations.

    The other two sites were not feasible due to technical reasons,” an official said.

    “They were also requested to arrange tankers and place indent at stations.

    The Assistant Divisional Railway Manager, Delhi is being nominated as nodal officer for the purpose,” the official said.

    Delhi reported a staggering 348 deaths due to COVID-19 as hospitals in the national capital continued to grapple with a severe shortage of medical oxygen.

    As many as 24,331 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

    Sharma said encouraged by the response of the first two Oxygen Express trains, the railways has moved four tankers from Lucknow to Bokaro and they have been loaded.

    “They’re about to start from Bokaro.

    We expect that by midnight, they’ll be able to reach Varanasi and by tomorrow morning they’ll reach Lucknow,” he said.

    “Earlier, five tankers reached Lucknow… they’re expected to reach Bokaro tomorrow morning.

    So, these nine tankers will carry approximately 150 MTs of Oxygen, much needed for Uttar Pradesh.

    Other than Delhi, we are also in touch with governments of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for Oxygen Express for their states,” Sharma said.

    Indian Railway has mapped out the following routes to transport oxygen:

    * For the delivery of more liquid medical oxygen to Maharashtra, railways has planned to transport oxygen from Jamnagar to Mumbai and for Nagpur/Pune from Vizag/Angul.

    * Railways has mapped the route from Angul to Secunderabad to deliver liquid medical oxygen for Telangana.

    * For Andhra Pradesh, railways has planned to transport liquid medical oxygen from vacancy Angul to Vijayawada.

    * For Madhya Pradesh, railways has mapped the route from Jamshedpur to Jabalpur for the transportation of liquid medical oxygen.

  • Oxygen Express train begins journey from Maharashtra’s Kalamboli to get loaded in Visakhapatnam

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways’ Oxygen Express train with seven tankers left Kalamboli goods yard in Navi Mumbai on Monday for Vizag where it will be loaded with medical oxygen for Maharashtra.

    The service of Oxygen Express trains was announced by Railways Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday evening and a ramp was built by the Central Railway at Kalamboli overnight to facilitate loading of the roll-on-roll-off oxygen trucks on the train.

    The rolling stock for the same has been funded by the Indian Army and is maintained by the Railways. “The roll-on-roll-off service with seven empty tankers departed from Kalamboli goods yard for Visakhapatnam steel plant siding at 8.05 pm today. This train will move via Vasai Road, Jalgaon, Nagpur, Raipur Junction to Visakhapatnam steel plant siding in East Coast Railway zone where it will be loaded with liquid medical oxygen,” the railways said.

    Railways is running its first Oxygen Express in its fight against COVID-19. The Ro-Ro service with 7 empty tankers departed from Kalamboli, Maharashtra for Vizag today.Oxygen Express will move via a green corridor for loading with Liquid Medical Oxygen. pic.twitter.com/TonlClDdQf
    — Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) April 19, 2021

    Officials said that Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra state governments had earlier approached the Railways Ministry to explore whether liquid medical oxygen tankers could be moved by the rail network.

    On the receipt of the request from the two states, the Railways explored the technical feasibility of transportation of liquid medical oxygen and decided that it has to be transported through roll-on-roll-off service with road tankers placed on flat wagons.

    “Since the first empty tankers will move on April 19, we hope to begin operations of Oxygen Express over the next few days. We would be able to send oxygen wherever there is such demand. Green corridor is being created for fast movement of Oxygen Express trains,” an official had said.

    A meeting was held between Railway Board officials and state transport commissioners and representatives of the industry on April 17 on issues related to transportation of liquid medical oxygen.

    “Instructions have been issued to zonal railways to ensure readiness to receive the trailers and load them. Ramps have to be built at Vizag, Angul and Bhilai and the existing ramp at Kalamboli is to be strengthened. Ramps at other locations would also be ready in a couple of days by the time the tankers reach those locations,” the railways said in a statement.

    “Due to restrictions of height of Road Over Bridges and over-head equipment at certain locations, the model of road tanker T-1618 with a height of 3,320 mm was found feasible to be placed on flat wagons (DBKM) with a height of 1,290 mm,” it added.

    In order to ensure that parameters of transportation are tested, trials were conducted at various locations, it said. On April 18 a trial was organised by the Western Railway at Boisar where a loaded tanker was placed on a flat DBKM wagon and all the required measurements were taken.

    In order to enable commercial booking and freight payment for roll-on-roll-off movement of liquid medical oxygen in cryogenic tankers, the Railway Ministry had issued a circular on April 16 providing all necessary details and guidance on the matter.