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Railways approve Maharashtra’s request of transporting liquid medical oxygen

Free time of five hours each shall be allowed at the loading and unloading point. Securing of trucks by locks/lashing shall be ensured by the customer.

Railways approve Maharashtra's request of transporting liquid medical oxygen-dnm
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Mumbai, First Published Apr 18, 2021, 6:10 PM IST

Mumbai: The Railways has given a green signal for the transportation of liquid oxygen on trains to Maharashtra after state principal secretary wrote to Indian Railways, seeking help in the transportation of liquid oxygen in cryogenic tankers.

Free time of five hours each shall be allowed at the loading and unloading point. Securing of trucks by locks/lashing shall be ensured by the customer. The guidelines given in Red Tariff No.20 for the movement of Liquid Oxygen shall have to be followed, a directive issued by the Ministry of Railways stated.

The circular said the staff accompanying liquid oxygen trucks to be loaded on the Ro-Ro service will be charged second class ticket for the journey and only two persons will be allowed to accompany the truck. The empty flow direction of the containers will also be charged by the railways, news agency ANI reported.

Earlier this week, seven people died due to a shortage of oxygen supply in a hospital here in Nalasopara.

Earlier this week, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had said there was a shortage of medical oxygen in Maharashtra and had sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to address the issue.

The PM took a comprehensive review to ensure adequate medical grade oxygen supply in the country on Friday. According to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), inputs from ministries like Health, DPIIT, Steel, Road and Transport were shared with PM Modi. He stressed that it's important to ensure synergy across ministries and state governments.

Maharashtra remains one of the worst affected states hit by the pandemic. The state reported 67,123 new cases and 419 deaths on Friday, taking the total active cases in the state to 6,47,933, as per the state health department.

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