Railways will tell passengers to not charge laptops and phones at night, here is why

Indian Railways issued these instructions back in 2014 but their proper implementation seems to be starting now.

When you travel by train in India, it is rare that you would have thought about charging your phone onboard. I mean it is not something that will occur to you before you step into a train to get on with your journey. But even though it is one of the most overlooked things, it is important. Charging your phone on a train is something that everyone does. But there is going to be a change to this simple benefit that you avail inside trains. Indian Railways has decided to put restrictions on charging mobile phones, laptops during certain hours to prevent fire hazards on trains. So, if you are traveling between 11 pm and 5 am on a train, you will not be able to charge your mobile phone or laptop. Senior officials of Indian Railways told PTI on Tuesday that Western Railways already began implementing the new rule on March 16 by cutting off the power supply to these charging docks during these 6 hours. "It is a Railway Board instruction for all railways. We have started implementing it from March 16," CPRO of Western Railway, Sumit Thakur, was quoted as saying in the PTI report. But if you think you are hearing about this rule suddenly, you will be surprised to know that such a rule has existed before. According to the Southern Railways CPRO B Guganesan, as cited in the report, these instructions are not new but a reiteration of earlier orders of the Railway Board. These instructions were issued back in 2014 when the Commissioner of Railway Safety recommended that charging stations inside trains should be turned off between 11 pm and 5 am, right after a fire incident took place inside the Bangalore-Hazur Sahib Nanded Express. And these orders were issued to all divisions of Indian Railways.