One of the three tankers forcibly taken over by the Motor Vehicle Department under the Disaster Management Act has returned to Kochi in Kerala with liquified oxygen from Jharkhand on Thursday morning.
The tankers were seized by the department led by the Regional Transport Officer on May 8.
The tanker was filled with liquified oxygen at the Tata Steel plant at Jharkhand. The tanker arrived at Cochin Air Products owned by the Cochin Shipyard at 7.30 a.m. after covering over 2400 km spread across the States of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu.
Breakdown in A.P.
The tanker had experienced a breakdown at Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh but could resume the journey in eight hours thanks to the help routed through a Tata dealer. Three trained drivers of KSRTC and an assistant Motor Vehicle Inspector were aboard the tanker.
Though the tankers were originally scheduled to be air-lifted to the supply point from the Kochi airport on May 14, the departure had to be deferred by a day to the Air Force port at Coimbatore on account of the inclement weather here.
The tanker concerned was subjected to examination at the plant before they were filled with liquified oxygen and left for Kochi on May 17 at 2 a.m.
