Oxygen tankers headed for city ‘traced’ to Aurangabad, Gondia

Nagpur: District collector office had back-to-back scares on two days after four tankers, scheduled to reach Nagpur, were found in Aurangabad and Gondia under mysterious circumstances leaving the Oxygen management team reeling under tension.
The four tankers, that had substantial liquid oxygen from Bhilai’s Praxair India private limited for Nagpur, were to be provided police escort for the rest of their journeys.The tankers, that were traced at Aurangabad, had delivery receipts meant for a location at Chakan in Pune. These tankers were requisitioned by Nagpur district collector Ravindra Thakare.
It’s learnt district oxygen management team was left on toes on Wednesday after two oxygen tankers were untraceable after having left Bhilai with liquid medical oxygen. The tanker drivers were not responding to repeated calls.
Collector office had alerted the police and RTO offices. Oxygen co-ordinator Pyare Khan’s team too were engaged in tracing the vehicles. Much to the relief of the collector’s team, RTO and police had traced the two vehicles at Deoli check naka in Gondia from where they were escorted back to city.
In the latest incident on Thursday, another two oxygen vehicle too had gone missing after updating their status as ‘breakdown’. As Khan’s maintenance team reached the Bhilai’s plant to repair the tankers, they were found missing. Following an alert by Khan’s team, district collector team contacted the Bhilai’s plant management. The management helped collector team with the location of the tankers near Kasarwadi in Aurangabad district where they were made to be intercepted by police who are bringing back the tankers to city.
The district collector office, which has now roped in RTO officials to track tankers’ movement, is now set to take slew of measures like alerting the toll and check nakas regarding the tankers meant for Nagpur.
In the other development, it’s learnt the Indian Airforce (IAF) transport aircraft was supposed to reach city from Vijaynagar to lift four tankers for Bhuwaneshwar but they were yet to land at the time of going to press. Four tankers were supposed to reach from Angul near Bhuvaneshwar on Friday by Oxygen express.