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Panel for switching off mobile charge points in trains from 10 pm to 6 am
Shubhadeep Choudhury
Tribune News Service
Railway safety
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panel was formed to probe the dreadful fire in an AC 3-tier coach of the Bangalore-Nanded Express on December 28, resulting in the death of 26 persons and serious injuries to five
In the provisional report, Mittal also recommended that the Railways should do away with curtains in gangway portion of AC coaches
The panel also recommended that smoke/carbon monoxide alarms should be provided in coaches to give timely warning of fire/smouldering
Bangalore, January 29
While the charging points for mobile phones and laptops provided in the railway coaches are helpful for passengers, the facility may have an adverse effect as far as railway safety is concerned.
Bangalore-based Satish Kumar Mittal, Commissioner of Railway Safety (Southern Circle), who has been assigned to probe the dreadful fire in an AC 3-tier coach of the Bangalore-Nanded Express on December 28, resulting in the death of 26 persons and serious injuries to five, has recommended that power points provided in air-conditioned coaches for charging mobile phones/laptops should be switched off between 10 pm to 6 am.
In the provisional report, Mittal also recommended that the Railways should do away with curtains in gangway portion of AC coaches. “Combustible material like curtains, linen, bed rolls (distributed as well as loaded for returned journey), when ignited intentionally or unintentionally, will cause fire to spread rapidly which will lay a virtual death trap for the innocent passengers”, observed the Railway Safety Commissioner.
During the investigation, Mittal found burnt and melted adopter and burnt laptop on berth no 13. Burnt cells were also found.
Another burnt laptop was found on berth No. 40. A three-pin top was found in burnt condition with snapped wire near mobile charging point of berth No. 39.
The Railway Safety Commissioner wrote that that upon careful consideration of the factual, material and circumstantial evidence available with him, he came to the conclusion that the fire breaking out in the coach in the early hours of December 28 was “most probably caused by advertent act or by an act of negligence on the part of unidentified passenger(s) or person(s)”.
Mittal classified the accident under the category “Error in working near railway line”. The report mentioned that as per the preliminary report of Andhra Pradesh State Forensic Science Laboratory, no sign of any explosion was found in the burnt coach.
Forensic examiners also found that the pattern of fire signature was slow and progressive indicating absence of inflammable substances and sabotage as cause of fire. Majority of passengers who died were victims of gaseous asphyxia with 100 per cent burns and neurological shock.