BMC polls: From natty notables to nattering netas, colonial council is today’s richest civic body

On the afternoon of Sep 4, 1873, a few dozen Englishmen, Hindus, Muslims and Parsis gathered inside the municipal building in Fort, north of today’s BMC headquarters. Their shared aim was to create an effective system of local self-government for Bombay’s 6.5 lakh residents between Colaba and Tardeo. Over 160 years later, the BMC is India’s richest civic body, with a budget nearing Rs 75,000cr.

Before BMC


1669 | Bombay transferred to the East India Company; administered by the governor and senior officials, with no formal civic authority

1803-1845 | City governed by a Court of Petty Sessions

1845 | Court replaced by a Board of Conservancy, controlled by justices

1858 | Administration handed to a triumvirate of commissioners




Minutes of First Meeting

The minutes of the 1873 meeting (one Major Baker RE was voted to chair it) were meticulously written down by then municipal secretary H Winford Barrow. The business was to elect the chairman and members of the town council. He recorded :

• The advertisement governing the meeting was read

• The honourable Narayan Tasudeojee proposed that Captain George F Henry be elected chairman of the municipal corporation of Bombay. The motion was seconded by Byramjee Jeejeebhoy esquire

Patriotic Corporators

They made the mighty British Empire quake :

Dadabhai Naoroji | Pherozshah Mehta | Badrudin Tayebji | HP Mody | Jamnadas Mehta | SS Mirajkar | Yusuf Meherally | Sarojini Naidu

BMC’s Formation & Aftermath

1865 | Bombay Municipal Corporation created; Arthur Crawford appointed municipal commissioner for five years. Municipal Act vests full executive power in the municipal commissioner

1873 | First meeting of the democratic civic body held

1888 | Present Municipal Act enacted, later amended multiple times

1889 | Construction of BMC headquarters at CST begins; earlier offices were in Girgaum and later near Kalaghoda

1931 | Designation of ‘president’ changed to ‘mayor’; JB Boman-Behram becomes the first mayor

1950 | Suburbs merged with the corporation

1952 | Corporation becomes a fully elected body

1956 | First woman mayor (Sulochana M Modi) appointed; extended suburbs merged

1957 | Vaitarna scheme conceived, planned & executed

1963 | 140 constituencies introduced

1968 | First elections held

1972 | Marathi adopted as the official language of the corporation

1996 | Bombay renamed Mumbai