A possible major train mishap was averted and hundreds of lives were saved after the rail track near the Singapur Road station developed a crack and a linesman on duty detected it on Thursday morning.
The incident took place at around 8.30 am ahead of the passing of Koraput-Visakhapatnam Passenger and Bhagat Kothi Express through the route. The alerted linesman engaged on duty near Platform No. 1 at the station first detected it and informed the Station Master. Railway authorities immediately swung into action and stopped both trains before carrying out track repairing. The train service was restored on the route after a few hours.
Notably, the Bhubaneswar-Koraput Hirakhand Express had a miraculous escape near the same station on December 25, 2018 after the tracks developed a crack in the similar fashion. The crack was detected by signalman Baishnav Gouda and the train halted near the station for around one and half hour for repairing at that time.