On May 10, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan pushed the panic button. He said Kerala had no choice but to stop supplying oxygen to other states as its buffer stock had depleted from 450 metric tonnes (MT) to 86 MT. At that point Kerala was expecting COVID-19 cases to surge to 6 lakh by May 15.
Kerala desperately needed more oxygen supplies. In three days, the Centre increased Kerala's oxygen quota but how was it to rush this to Kerala?
By then the Indian government had allowed what has always been considered risky and dangerous: conversion of LNG (liquid nitrogen gas) tankers into LMO (liquid medical oxygen) tankers. Along with the floating corpses, the pandemic had forced the country to throw caution, too, into the Ganga.
The Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) was asked to make use of the new Covid-induced relaxation. It found that Petronet LNG Terminal in Kochi had three unused LNG tankers.
Converting these LNG tankers to LMO tankers, MVD officials felt, would be the riskiest, most adventurous, part of 'Operation Jeeva Vayu'. The Department had to get the conversion done so swiftly that it would not get time to enlist help from other departments.
They could not have been more mistaken. They did the conversion with commendable skill but trouble lay in wait for them along the Highway from West Bengal to Kochi.
Potentially inflammable conversion
Tripunithura's Joint Regional Transport Officer Shafeeque B was in charge of the operation. Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO), even while allowing the conversion, said it was not a safe practice and not followed internationally. It is unsafe because natural gas is made up of hydrocarbons, which would explode when in touch with oxygen.
So, to be converted into an oxygen tanker, the LNG tanker will have to be first cleared of even the tiniest hydrocarbon traces. It is a laborious process, called “purging”, which involves filling the large LNG cylinder with hydrocarbon-free nitrogen. The PESO mandated that hydrocarbon vapour concentration should be reduced to 0.01 per cent.
The “purging”, the repeated rinsing of the cylindrical chamber with hydrocarbon-free nitrogen, was done by Petronet. It cost Rs 5 lakh for each tanker, and they used their CSR funds for the purpose.
The tanker then had to be refitted with high-pressure hoses, flanges, washers, nipple and adapter that suited an oxygen tanker. “We had to manufacture some of them using local materials as some of these components were not available in the market,” said Shafeeque, who is also a rig engineer. An engineering firm based in Hyderabad then gave clearance to these tankers as per the PESO guidelines.
Tauktae scare and take off
Nine KSRTC drivers were picked and given a day's training on how to operate a tanker with liquid oxygen. On May 15, the first repurposed tanker was airlifted to West Bengal from Coimbatore's Sulur Air Force Station in the Indian Air Force's transport aircraft C-17 Globemaster. Cyclone Tauktae had scuttled the MVD's attempts to airlift the tanker from Nedumbassery on May 14.
Along with the tanker were three KSRTC drivers - Joby PG, Viju P J, Antony Joy - and the team lead, assistant motor vehicle inspector Aneesh.
At the Tata Steel Plant in West Bengal's Burnpur, in south Bardhaman district, the tanker was subjected to one more “purge” before liquid medical oxygen was loaded. The return journey began on May 17 morning.
On-road balance
“It was for the first time these drivers were operating an oxygen tanker, that too a rigged one,” said Aneesh. The drivers were told that they should not let the liquid oxygen inside the cylinder slosh around. "This would increase the pressure. We were told to maintain it below 5 bars. If it went above, we had to release it," Aneesh said.
The drivers were not supposed to apply sudden brakes, had to be careful while moving over bumps and gutters and should never let the tyres drop outside the tar edge. The liquid oxygen had to remain as still as a placid lake.
The tanker passed Kolkata along the Kolkata-Chennai Highway, crossed the border, and carefully moved through most of Odisha. Before it reached the Odisha-Andhra Pradesh border, “Operation Jeeva Vayu' encountered its first big jolt.
First attack
"We found a police team waiting for us," Aneesh said. "They said they had to examine the tanker as it was carrying oxygen. They said it would take only about 10 minutes," he said.
But as he was waiting, he happened to overhear the animated conversations of these police officers. From the random English words that were thrown about, Aneesh got the feeling that these Odisha officials had plans to seize the tanker. He quickly called up Shafeeque who, in turn, called up P B Nooh, the new transport commissioner in Kerala.
While the Kerala team was kept waiting, an oxygen tanker with Andhra Pradesh registration came that way. It was blocked but was allowed to go after a while. "It was clear they were more interested in our tanker as it was a 10 kilolitre larger one. The one they allowed to pass was a five kilolitre tanker. It looked as if they were desperate for oxygen," Aneesh said.
Finally, after Nooh intervened with Odisha officials, the tanker was allowed to move.
Chase and after
But before they could progress even three kilometres, like in big action movies, two police vehicles came from behind and had the tanker wedged between them.
"When we came to a halt, another official car approached us. An IAS official got out. "We are going to take over the tanker," he told me. The officer looked determined. The officer was not even willing to talk to the transport commissioner when he came on the phone. "The official refused to talk to my commissioner but he said he would refill the tanker next morning and let us go," Aneesh said.
Shafeeque, who was controlling the operation from Kochi, then called up Aneesh and told him to keep arguing so that they could buy enough time for Nooh to contact higher officials in Odisha. "I kept talking, not agreeing to anything that the senior Odisha official was saying, just so that we could get some time. I said I cannot do anything without getting orders from my seniors," Aneesh said.
Aneesh had by then given enough time for Nooh to call up Chief Secretary V P Joy, who then used his clout to convince higher-ups in Odisha to free the tanker. "The Odisha official was called up by someone senior and he let us go," Aneesh said.
Third scare and a breakdown
Before they crossed the Odisha border, the tanker was waylaid once again by Odisha police and another set of senior officials. "But we told them what happened before. They made some quick calls and let us off," Aneesh said. "We understood the plight of Odisha officials. They were only trying to help their people," he added.
After they crossed into Andhra Pradesh, there were no more official 'pirates' looking to snatch oxygen cylinders. But there were technical snags. At a place called Srikakulam, some 100 kilometres from the Odisha border, the tanker hiccuped to a stop.
Its fuel pump got damaged. The first set of workers sent by Tata Motors could not fix the problem. Tata had to send a larger team. After eight hours of halt at Srikakulam, the four-member mission resumed its journey.
Symbolic ending
The tanker with medical-grade oxygen reached Kochi in the morning of May 20. The oxygen tanker's adventure-filled return was loaded with symbolic significance; it coincided with the swearing-in of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government.
