BOMBAY MUNICIPAL CORPORATION BUILDING – MUMBAI

The Bombay Municipal Corporation was created in 1865 and the city’s first Municipal Commissioner
was Arthur Crawford, after whom the Crawford Market was named. The corporation initially occupied
a building in Girgaum and was shifted to another on the Esplanade where the present Army & Navy
building stands in Kala Ghoda. The new headquarters, in its present location, was built between 1884
and 1893.
As with many buildings of the period, the BMC headquarters are designed in the Gothic style. The
master architect F.W. Stevens’ style incorporates a 235-foot tower and an impressive dome that is even
taller. Arched windows, turrets, and winged creatures representing “Urbs Prima in Indis” or the “First City
of India” are some of the building’s best features. The interiors, which include a teak-furnished Council
Chamber, also house the BMC’s many offices.
The BMC wasn’t a success in its early years – by the end of 1865, its first year, it was already `1,40,000
in debt and by 1871, its deficits had risen to `37,70,000. A solution came in 1888, when the legislative
council, guided by KT Telang and Pherozshah Mehta (whose statue is erected outside the building),
passed the Bombay Municipal Act. It stipulated that half the members of the Corporation and three
quarters of the Town Council members be elected by the people, giving the city its first taste of local
self-government.
The model was eventually followed by the rest of India and public elections to the BMC continued to
be held today. The BMC, however, is now referred to as the BrihanmumbaiMahanagarPalika or the
Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai. Its coat of arms is inscribed with “YatoDharmastato Jaya”,
which in Sanskrit means “Where there is Righteousness, there shall be Victory”.