Hundreds of commuters had a close shave on Thursday when an alert contract labourer found around 150 pandrol clips missing from railway tracks and alerted motorman of a Katwa-bound local near Balgona station in Burdwan district.
Railway sources said as railway contract labourer Manab Pramanik spotted that the clips were missing, he immediately brought it to the notice of gangman Manas Pramanik standing nearby.
With the 52301 UP Balgona-Katwa local fast approaching, the duo started frantically waving a red flag and the diesel loco motorman halted the three-bogie train, just few metres from the loosened tracks.
The incident led to hour-long disruption in the narrow gauge section, from 7:45am to 8:50am, under Howrah-Burdwan division of Eastern Railway, in the peak morning hours, the sources said. There are seven/eight stations in the narrow gauge section between Balgona and Katwa.