The decision to avoid charging mobile trains at night is a precautionary measure, according to senior railway officials. Passengers from 11 to 5 am would also not be able to charge their telephones on board. Senior Indian Railways officials announced on Tuesday to PTI that the new regulation was already implemented by Western Railways on March 16th by taking out power supplies for the aforementioned charging docks.
The rule was given back in 2014 when the Indian Railway Board Commissioner recommended disconnecting charging stations from the trains between 23:00 and 5:00 a.m.
The reiteration of these orders comes sometime after the increase in fire threat accidents on some tracks, according to Indian Railway officials. Officials have found that overloading electrical equipment is a significant cause of fire dangers.
This is after recent fire accidents in several trains. According to the railway authorities, the decision was made as a precautionary step to limit the use of charging ports.
In a fire survey, officials indicated that the points used to charge cell telephones and other electronic equipment could be turned off at night.
Many small fire accidents, recorded on long-distance onboard trains, were triggered by electrical system overloads, officials said.
In an alleged case of short circuits on March 13, recent fires broke out in the engine of a static goods train in the station Ranchi, a coach from the Dehradun-bound Shatabdi Express suspected of having been struck by flames.
“Safety is central to rail operational activities, and no one is able to leave the guard. The concerned people need to conduct a detailed study and assessment by the railway ministry in compliance with a statement on all safety measures in train operations,” the minister said in the review meeting.
Indian Railways has also introduced several smoking-fighting measures, which evidently contributed to the on-board shipment of flammable articles behind some of the recent fires.
To inform all players including rail users and employees about measures to be taken against incidents of fire, the national carrier has ordered Zonal railways to launch an intense 7-day awareness campaign.
Directives are issued after several fire-related accidents not only in railways but also onboard trains. They involve the burning of a burning cigarette tossed into a bathroom dustbin to be a source of fire from an initial sample in Delhi-Dehradun Shatabdi Express.
Fumes from Duronto’s wagon, from the Allahabad Junction to the terminal of Lokmanya Tilak in Mumbai, and other minor fires from the coach factory’s premises, in waste dumps and bushes, confirmed another case of short-running in Delhi-Bhubaneswar Rajdhani.
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