Pay attention passengers!

The Railway Board has recently asked all railway zones to enforce a rule requiring mobile phone and laptop charging sockets in train coaches to remain off from 11 pm to 5 am as a fire safety measure.

The instruction comes after an incident on South Eastern Railway in which a passenger's power bank exploded and emitted smoke while charging, news agency PTI reported earlier this week. The charging points remained switched on during the prohibited hours because onboard staff had not disconnected the power supply.

In a letter dated 26 October, the Railway Board wrote, "Recently, an instance has occurred in SER (South Eastern Railway) wherein onboard staff did not switch off the mobile charging points during the aforesaid period. Subsequently, during charging, a passenger's power bank exploded with smoke."

It further said, "In view of the above, all Zonal Railways are advised to issue necessary instructions to all concerned staff to ensure strict compliance for mobile charging points to invariably remain switched off from 11 pm to 5 am," adding that no exception should be made during these hours.

The order also directed the railway zones to train the concerned staff to ensure thorough implementation of and compliance with these instructions, and added, "Further, surprise inspections should be conducted at both the officers' and supervisors' levels to ensure strict compliance with these instructions."

Incidentally, this directive is not altogether news.In 2014 letter, the board had said, "The CRS, Southern Circle, in his report, has recommended that in air-conditioned coaches, power points provided for charging mobile phones and laptops should be switched off between 10 pm and 6 am."

In a separate incident in November 2023, a fire broke out around 5:25 pm in a sleeper-class coach of the New Delhi–Darbhanga Humsafar Clone Special. The incident occurred when the train was on the Sarai Bhopat–Etawah section of North Central Railway’s Prayagraj Division.

The flames engulfed the coach before spreading to neighbouring coaches.

Following the incident, the CRS, in its report, recommended that mobile charging points also be switched off overnight in sleeper-class coaches, in line with the practice followed in AC coaches.

While the Railway Board has not clearly specified how passengers can charge their mobile phones and laptops during the restricted hours, they would need to charge their devices beforehand.

Notes: 

1.Indian Railways has started strictly enforcing  a safety rule that switches off mobile and laptop charging sockets inside train coaches between 11:00 PM and 5:00 AM to prevent fire hazards.

2.Charging points are turned off from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM across all zones.

3.Sockets are strictly meant for low-power devices like mobile phones and laptops.
Coaches feature standard electrical outlets alongside USB Type-A and Type-C ports (especially in modern coaches like the Vande Bharat Express).

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