For over a year, the BMC has been trying to resolve the grievances of Mahul residents, who are suffering from high pollution levels, but is unable to find alternative homes for them. Requests sent to government agencies — SRA, MMRDA and Shivshahi Punarvasan Prakalp (SPP) — for 3,000 tenements each have not yielded any results, as they don't have enough to spare.

Civic officials said that after former chief minister Devendra Fadnavis formed a special committee to look into the Mahul issue early last year, the BMC had written to SRA asking them for 3,000 tenements. The committee is chaired by the civic chief and includes officials from MHADA, MMRDA, SRA and SPP. "The bulk of our tenements for project-affected people are located in Mahul. We can't relocate those living in Mahul since we do not have the required number of tenements elsewhere. We had written to SRA about it around eight months ago, but they replied saying that they need the ones they have, and would not be able to give us any," said a senior civic official.