ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we examine the concept of and issues with regard to urban liveability in the major cities of Bangladesh since the country’s independence in 1971. Section 1 provides a conceptual framework for understanding liveability and the changing nature of the components of liveability with economic development. In section 2, we briefly recount the history of common notions of urban development and current evidence on the provision of urban housing including approaches towards low-income housing. In section 3, we review the successive governments’ policies towards housing and urban development as reflected in six Five Year Plans and a few policy papers on the subject. Section 4 summarises major infrastructure and on-going housing projects against the overall socio-economic development of the country. The final section concludes by reflecting our understanding of the government’s policy on urban containment and the interweaving of business actors into governmental decision-making – a hegemonic project of neo-liberalism.
