Buses offered to civic transport bodies

The RTO offered the buses to the civic transport organisations of the district in a bid to boost their road operations for the benefit of the railway commuters. Despite the availability of a huge number of buses, the Thane Municipal Transport (TMT) opted to deploy just fifteen buses on the day. The Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Transport (KDMT) also took the services of just fifteen out of the 550 buses offered by the RTO.
The extra buses on the roads on Tuesday provided some relief to the commuters from Thane, Kalyan and Mira Bhayander; however, they increased the number of motor vehicles on the road. Due to the density of traffic in the areas near the Thane and Kalyan railway stations increased substantially. The RTO had to tackle the hiked density of traffic with the help of the traffic police.
The transport officials also took another step on the day to ensure that cabbies and auto men do not take the opportunity to loot the beleaguered commuters. Auto drivers and cabbies are known to charge hefty sums from the commuters to render service on such occasions and the stranded commuters have no choice but to fulfil the inappropriate demands.
Keeping the grave situation in mind the RTO formed special squads to man areas near the railway stations. The squads were posted at key spots near the stations to come to the rescue of beleaguered commuters at the hands of the auto drivers and cabbies. "Our men warned the errant cabbies of strict action if they tried to charge exorbitant amounts from the commuters," the RTO further added. He claimed that the step was not to take any action against the cabbies at that point of time but to ensure that commuters did not have to shell out for a ride.
Even though the RTO had braced up for a bigger challenge it did not have to use the measures as the situation eased out. Fortunately for the commuters and the transport authorities, the striking motormen ended their agitation on Tuesday evening thereby restoring the railway traffic back on the rails.