In April 2021, during the second wave of Covid-19, Indian Railways began to carry liquid medical oxygen. Road tankers were loaded onto flat wagons and run across the country as Oxygen Express trains. The first train with filled tankers reached Nashik in Maharashtra on April 24.
By June 8, 392 Oxygen Expresses had completed their journeys, the Press Information Bureau reported. They had carried 1,603 tankers and delivered “nearly 27600 MT of LMO.”