Following a recommendation from a government appointed commission and public opinion, the trust was created with the purpose of expansion and improvement of Kolkata and its urban surroundings.

A brainchild of George Lord Curzon when he served as the Governor-General of India, it was created as a reaction to the growing representation of native Indians in the existing Calcutta Municipal Corporation(CMC).

The Trust engaged the services of Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the town planner who had successfully restructured the city of Paris.

His other favoured concepts included 'circulation' (i.e. constructing roads for the movement of people and goods) and 'respiration' (leaving open spaces for the city to breathe).

The resulting confection of parks, wide boulevards and so on entailed the destruction of considerable amounts of built up areas.