<P> The Bombay City Improvement Trust (BIT) was created on December 9, 1898, in response to the Mumbai plague epidemic of 1896 . It was created through an Act of the Parliament . The Municipal Corporation and the government handed over all vacant lands to this body . The CIT undertook a host of measures to improve sanitary and living conditions in the city . The planned opening up of suburbs was due to the Trust . </P> <P> The CIT widened roads in the central, crowded, parts of the town . A new east - west road, the Princess Street, was constructed to channel the sea air into the centre of the crowded residential areas . The north - south Sydenham Road (now Mohammedali Road) was also constructed with this end in view . </P>

When was the city of bombay improvement trust established