The Indian Air Force on Friday pressed into service its heavy-lift aircraft to ferry empty oxygen tankers to filling points across the country even as hospitals in the national capital sent frantic SOS messages for steady supplies.
IAF’s C-17 ad Il-76 aircraft flew three cryogenic oxygen containers from the Hindan Air Base to Panagarh in West Bengal Thursday night, while similar missions were launched from Hyderabad to Odisha.
Once recharged, the oxygen containers would be ferried by train or by road to their respective destinations.
According to experts, ferrying liquid oxygen-filled containers on board an aircraft is dangerous, given the highly inflammable nature of the gas. The aircraft is ferrying empty containers only to save the time taken for the one-way journey.
Oxygen containers from DRDO in Bengaluru too have been sent to the national capital which is facing an acute shortage of medical oxygen as it deals with the worst outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Besides oxygen containers, the IAF also transported a Covid-19 testing laboratory set up to Leh as the newly carved out union territory of Ladakh was reporting a surge in new cases.
The government has already pressed into service Oxygen Express trains to ferry oxygen from Odisha which has large industrial units that can convert industrial oxygen to medical oxygen.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had also spoken to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and assured him of facilitating lifting of the national capital’s quota of oxygen from the state.