The Railways has decided to disallow passengers from using mobile charging stations onboard trains between 11 pm and 5 am as a precautionary measure against spread of fire, senior officials said on Tuesday. The Western Railway has already put things in motion on March 16 by cutting off supply to these charging ports between this period. "It is a Railway Board instruction for all railways. We have started implementing it from March 16," CPRO of Western Railway, Sumit Thakur, told PTI.

Southern Railway CPRO B Guganesan told PTI that these instructions are not new, but a reiteration of earlier orders of the Railway Board. In 2014, the Commissioner of Railway Safety had recommended that charging stations be switched off between 11 pm and 5 am, soon after a fire incident in the Bangalore-Hazur Sahib Nanded Express. The Railway Board had eventually issued such orders to all rail zones.