Nagpur: The Roll-On Roll-Off (RORO) Oxygen Express train, which departed from Visakhapatnam yesterday, arrived at the Nagpur Junction railway station on Friday loaded with liquid medical oxygen tankers and offloaded three oxygen tankers here.


The Oxygen Express train, which arrived with seven oxygen tankers, will proceed to Nashik to deliver oxygen to patients across Maharashtra, said Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.


“Under the leadership of PM @NarendraModiji, the first ‘Oxygen Express’ train loaded with liquid medical oxygen tankers from Vizag has reached Nagpur. 3 tankers have been offloaded in Nagpur. The train will proceed to Nashik, delivering oxygen for patients across Maharashtra,” he tweeted.


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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Under the leadership of PM <a href="https://news.abplive.com/news/india/covid-surge-armed-forces-medical-services-to-import-23-oxygen-generation-plants-from-germany-1454415">@NarendraModi</a> ji, the first ‘Oxygen Express’ train loaded with liquid medical oxygen tankers from Vizag has reached Nagpur.<br><br>3 tankers have been offloaded in Nagpur. The train will proceed to Nashik, delivering oxygen for patients across Maharashtra. <a >pic.twitter.com/9IaMywXDgq</a></p>&mdash; Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) <a >April 23, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>


The Union Railways Ministry had earlier on Thursday said the transportation of oxygen through trains is faster over long distances than road transport.


“It may please be noted that to facilitate loading/unloading of tankers in/from flat wagons, a ramp is required. Also, due to restrictions of height of Road Over Bridges (ROBs) and Over Head Equipment (OHE) at certain locations, out of the various specifications of road tankers, the model of road tanker T 1618 with height of 3320 mm was found feasible to be placed on flat wagons (DBKM) with height of 1290 mm,” the ministry said in a release, adding the Railways transported essential commodities and kept the supply chain intact even during the lockdown last year and continue to serve the nation in times of emergencies.


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Meanwhile, Maharashtra has reported 66,836 new Covid-19 cases, 74,045 recoveries and 773 deaths in the last 24 hours.