Mumbai-s lifeline, the local trains,will begin only for essential workers affiliated to the government in a day or two. While the ground railway staff has been kept in readiness for Monday morning, till 9.30pm on Sunday, there was no confirmation and approval from the government as marathon meetings to discuss out the nitty-gritties of the run were being ironed out.

"This is a huge exercise and both the railways, the BMC, the state government and the Centre are involved to work out minutest details. A basic protocol of how it will work has been prepared and ground staff alerted, but no date has been finalised yet. As of now there are no instructions to run local trains," a senior official said.