The City Improvement Trust was created in light of the plague
to help out the Bombay Municiple Corporation in dealing
with the problems of overcrowding, insanitary conditions and other problems
that might arise for urbanization. From 1898 until 1920, they nearly recreated
Mumbai by building modern thoroughfares, promoting co-operative housing
and building chawls for the working class. They
also developed communities on the north side of Mumbai in order to spread
out the population. However, once again, by 1920 Mumbai was once again battling
with the problems of rapid urbanization. By 1933 the CIT had become nearly
obsolete and was merged with the Bombay Municiple Corporation.
The main project that the CIT undertook was the Back Bay Reclamation Project. The project was developed in 1865, and CIT was commissioned to head the project. It was sidelined and finally reinitiated in 1913. However, it took until 1922 for all the governmental formalities to be taken care of. By 1930 the project was abandoned. It was left alone until the late 1950s when it was handed over to the Bombay Development Department and finally completed in the 1970s.
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