Of the total 30,000-odd slum-dwellers in the area, an estimated 5,000 have been bearing the brunt of foul smell, with sewage entering their houses.

Reasons for the manhole giving in could not be ascertained, additional city engineer B S Trapasia said, adding that an electric motor was being used to pump out the sewage into another manhole. Efforts were on to bypass the line into another manhole, he added.

Municipal Commissioner Vilasini Ramachandran said she might use section 67 (3) of the Bombay Provincial Municipal Corporation (BMPC) Act to lay a new manhole in Jhanda Chowk, the problematic spot, to prevent sewage overflow in the area. The powers are used to carry out any public interest work in case of emergency. The work is expected to cost Rs 50,000.

Local councillor Indravadan Modi blamed the Gujarat Slum Clearance Board (GSCB) for laying undercapacity drainage lines and demanded that it should pay charges to the VMC to lay new lines.

The councillor also held the VMC equally responsible for failing to upgrade sewage pumping stations, which had lived a life of more than 25 years. He stated that there was a need to set up a new pumping station near the civic body's ward office in Panigate.

Meanwhile, the VMC's health department claimed that no cases of cholera were reported from the area.