The City of Bombay Improvement Trust (BIT) was created on 9 In December 1898, in response to the Bombay plague epidemic of 1896, the Bombay Chamber of Commerce approached 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.