Bombay City Improvement Trust

The City of Bombay Improvement Trust (BIT) was created on 9 December 1898, in response to the Bombay plague epidemic of 1896.[1] The plague's threat to Bombay's economy caused the Bombay Chamber of Commerce to approach Governor Lord Sandhurst to ensure “the destruction of insanitary [sic] property and the thorough cleansing of the city and suburbs" after the 1897 International Sanitary Conference in Venice threatened to quarantine ships from Bombay.[2][3][4]

The BIT was modeled on contemporary English and Scottish town-planning institutions and "possessed the authority not only to build housing, but also to demolish slums and widen roads, and improve sanitation, particularly in the “problematic” working-class neighborhoods."[3]

  1. ^ Kidambi, Prashant (2007), "Reordering the City: The Bombay Improvement Trust", The Making of an Indian Metropolis, Routledge, doi:10.4324/9781315238500-14/reordering-city-bombay-improvement-trust-prashant-kidambi, ISBN 978-1-315-23850-0, retrieved 11 January 2024
  2. ^ Daruwala, Rusi J. (1986). , The Bombay Chamber Story—150 Years (1st ed.). Bombay: Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry. p. 55.
  3. ^ a b Arnold, Caroline (2012). "The Bombay Improvement Trust, Bombay Millowners and the Debate Over Housing Bombay's Millworkers, 1896-1918". Essays in Economic & Business History. 30: 105–123. ISSN 2376-9459.
  4. ^ Waine, Vanessa Caru & translated by Oliver (18 November 2022). "Plague and Urban Policy in Bombay, 1896–1914". Metropolitics.