Uproarious scenes were witnessed in the Upper House with the Opposition legislators alleging that inaction on part of the Government led to the mess.
Train services on the Central and Harbour lines have been thrown out of gear since Tuesday midnight following a fire in a signal cabin between Kurla and Vidyavihar stations causing heavy damage to signalling gears.
Raising the issue, Opposition leader Vinod Tawade of BJP said the Government should have convened an emergency meeting to take a stock of the situation after the fire as thousands of commuters faced hardships yesterday.
"Government could have brought state transport buses from adjoining Raigad and Nashik districts to help Mumbai commuters who were stuck in local trains for hours," he said.
Traffic policemen from other parts of the state should have been deployed in the city as huge traffic snarls were witnessed on the Eastern Express highway, he said.
Alleging negligence by the Government in handling the situation, Tawade said the Government should apologise to Mumbaikars for the harrowing time they had to face.
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Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan informed the House that currently only 67 per cent of the local trains were running on the Central Railway.
"They are running 18-22 minutes behind schedule," he said, adding normal train services will resume from tomorrow.
Chavan said around 215 extra BEST (civic) buses have been pressed into service. Buses from Thane and Navi Mumbai municipal transport bodies have also been deployed. PTI KVS RSY