The Indian Railways is chugging away quietly amidst the pandemic, putting its metal wagons at the service of India. An interview with the CEO:
Indian Railways, the country’s biggest public transporter, is in the forefront of our fight against Covid—from ferrying migrant workers home to keeping the supply lines active, from turning wagons into isolation wards to transporting lifesaving oxygen…Indian Railways chief executive officer Suneet Sharma, who is also the Railway Board chairman, spoke to Jyotika Sood about the national carrier doing its bit.
Transporting Oxygen: Indian Railways never transported liquid medical oxygen (LMO) before but was ready with the infrastructure and plan within 24 hours when told to. The LMO had to be moved in containers and trucks, so there was limitation of height in terms of tunnels, overhead wires etc. Then we mapped the routes that allowed height clearances. In fact, within 24 hours we had our first trial at Boisar, 100 km north of Mumbai.
Oxygen Supply: On April 24, we started moving 170 metric tonnes of liquid oxygen in one day and the Railways is now moving over 800m tonnes of LMO a day, within 23 days of operation. Our Oxygen Express is moving at over 100 KMPH, supplying oxygen to 13 states.
The Cost: Transportation of oxygen is a noble cause, cost is a secondary thing. Nearly 260 Oxygen Expresses have completed their journey so far and brought relief to several states. The states provide tankers to the railways.
Railways and Covid Care: We have increased our railway hospital bed capacity from 2,539 to 6,972. Our ICU beds have gone up from 273 to 573. We have decided to get oxygen plants for railway hospitals. Four were installed already. We have also increased the number of ventilators and oxygen concentrators in our hospitals. Besides, we have turned 4,176 train coaches into Covid isolation facilities fitted with oxygen cylinders etc.