New Delhi, Oct 29 Experts and senior retired railway officials, including a former Railway Board member, have criticised the Railway Ministry’s directive to its zones to switch off all mobile phone and laptop charging points between 11 pm and 5 am to ensure fire safety.
They suggested that instead of causing inconvenience to passengers, the Railway Ministry should direct zones to install fuses or circuit breakers to cut off the power supply whenever excessive current flows through a circuit.
“Fires are caused by faults in sockets, electrical circuits or wiring, not by mobile phone charging itself. Denying passengers an essential service simply because the Railways has failed to ensure the safety of its electrical systems is not the right approach,” said Subodh Jain, former Member (Engineering), Railway Board.
He said installing fuses or circuit breakers would be a more practical solution to the problem.
“The simplest measure is to install fuses or circuit breakers. USB ports could also be provided as an alternative, allowing passengers to charge their mobile phones even when laptop charging is not possible,” he added.
“I urge the Railway Ministry to withdraw this order immediately and instead implement the suggested measures in the interest of passengers,” he stated.
Another expert associated with train safety agreed with Jain, saying that his experience of dealing with fire-related incidents on trains suggested that faults in circuits and wiring were the main culprits.
“Whenever there is a surge in current, a fuse should disconnect the power supply,” he suggested.
He recalled a recent report by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS), which investigated the fire incident in November 2023 in a sleeper-class coach of the New Delhi–Darbhanga Humsafar Clone Special.
He said one of the recommendations was to retrofit all coaches with fuses of adequate capacity.
“The CRS did recommend switching off charging points between 11 pm and 6 am as an immediate measure. However, it also criticised the Railways for failing to provide protection in the form of fuses in the mobile charging, lighting and fan circuits of air-conditioned and non-air-conditioned LHB coaches manufactured before 2012,” the expert said.
“The Railway Board had stated that the process of installing glass fuses in mobile charging sockets had begun, but there has been no update since then,” he added.
Passenger associations said mobile phones had become essential for travellers, as they were used for everything from displaying e-tickets and lodging complaints to staying connected with family members during train journeys.
“Mobile phones can be crucial in several situations, particularly when passengers need immediate assistance. Women travelling alone, senior citizens and people with health vulnerabilities often rely on their phones to stay in touch with family members and feel safe during their journeys,” said Basant Kumar Shukla, a Nagpur-based railway passenger association representative.
He added, “Passengers need a phone to lodge complaints about inadequate services or safety-related issues on trains.”
The Railway Board, on October 26, 2026, directed all railway zones to comply with its 2014 order requiring all mobile phone and laptop charging points in train coaches to be switched off between 11 pm and 5 am to prevent fires.
The directive referred to an incident on the South Eastern Railway (SER), in which onboard staff failed to switch off the mobile charging points between 11 pm and 5 am. As a result, a passenger’s power bank exploded while charging, producing smoke.
In June 2014, the Railway Board had decided for the first time to switch off electrical socket points on trains following a recommendation by the Commissioner of Railway Safety (CRS). The decision came after a fire broke out in 2013 in an AC three-tier coach of the Hazur Sahib Nanded–KSR Bengaluru Express in the Bengaluru division of the South Western Railway zone.
(PTI News)
