Flagging the risk of night time charging of mobile in the coaches, Indian Railways have issued a fiat that power in the sockets would be switched off from 11 pm onwards henceforth. The reason is to prevent any sparking or chances of electrical short-circuit due to continuous use beyond the charging limit of electronic devices. The same follows an incident that happened over South Eastern Railway when the onboard staff failed to switch off the power supply to socket. The incident that was widely reported saw the power bank of one of the traveller exploded as same was kept for charging overnight.

 

The matter was later investigated and it was noticed that frequently travellers kept the charging throughout the night and doze off forgetting to switch it off. In such circumstance, the devices tend to get over heated if the charging continues beyond 100 per cent. Since the electronic components are sensitive, the over charging of devices during late night to early morning was flagged as matter of concern. So the Electrical Directorate of Railway Board issued directions to all Principal Chief Mechanical Engingers of Zonal Railways to ensure that power in the sockets in coaches remains switched off from 11 pm to 5 am.

 

The matter is cited as important from point of view of passenger safety. The explosion of power bank though did not cause any injury, still it was considered as a high risk incident as same could have spiralled into major issue. The Board officials went through the threadbare and said that the attendants in coaches would be trained and given instructions to switch of the power supply to electric sockets besides the berths. Similarly, surprise inspections scheduled is also being drawn-up to ensure that the staff proactively follow the drill and switch of the power.