Lucknow: Oxygen-starved coronavirus positive patients in Uttar Pradesh got a new lease of life when an Oxygen Express train arrived at Charbagh Railway Station in Lucknow on Saturday morning.
The Oxygen express has brought in two tankers, carrying 30,000 litres of medical oxygen, from Bokaro in Jharkhand to save lives of critical coronavirus positive patients in Lucknow facing acute shortage of oxygen.
The Additional Chief Secretary Home Awanish Awasthi said that one tanker of medical oxygen was offloaded in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to maintain the oxygen supply in the district hospitals.
The Special train had left Lucknow on Thursday and after loading tankers with medical oxygen from the Steel Authority of India plant, it left Bokaro for Lucknow on Friday at 2 pm.
The Railways had made a Green Corridor for the smooth running of the Oxygen Express without waiting for a green signal or any other delay. A GRP team was escorting the train all the way to Lucknow. The special train chugged at the speed of 60 km per hour to reach the state capital at 6.30 am half an hour before its scheduled arrival.
The Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath thanked the Prime Minister and the Railway Minister Piyush Goyal for arranging the medical oxygen through the Oxygen Express. The state government has released Rs 20 crores to the Railways and others to meet the transportation and refill cost for maintaining oxygen supplies in different hospitals across the state.
Though 30,000 litres of medical oxygen has arrived in the state capital for city hospitals that were facing an acute shortage of oxygen but the quantity will not last long taking into account the ever-increasing number of critical patients in hospitals and under home isolation.
A government spokesman claimed that they have ordered 15,000 litres of concentrated oxygen and are actively considering another Oxygen Express to maintain supplies across Uttar Pradesh.
The Railways also got a supply of 100 oxygen cylinders from Delhi for its hospitals in Lucknow and other cities in the state.
