With their long legal battle coming to an end, the relief was visible on the faces of residents living at Mahul on Tuesday. The Bombay High Court has directed the civic body to relocate them at the earliest. While some families are apprehensive about where the alternative accommodation maybe, others who have suffered horrific ailments since they moved to Mahul feel any other location will be a better option.

Skin infections, hair loss and urinary tract infections are common complaints of the residents of the MHADA colony at Mahul and Ambapada. Narendra Singh, 54, has to wear a full-sleeved shirt every time he steps out, to conceal the extent of his skin infection. "My family moved to Mahul from Marol pipeline two-and-a-half years ago. Within a couple of days, I noticed these marks that looked like mosquito-bites. They started to spread and soon I started shedding skin," he said. Like Singh, his son, too, developed a similar infection, which vanished when he moved to Pune to study.