Traffic Congestion in Dhaka City and its Economic Impact

Abstract

Dhaka is the capital and one of the oldest cities of Bangladesh. The
history of Dhaka begins with urbanized settlements in the area that is now Dhaka
since the 7th century. Dhaka is the heart of Bangladesh as the capital city as well as
an economic & business hub of the economy. Bangladesh would enjoy the benefits
of a huge economic boost by alleviating traffic congestion in the capital, the share
of which alone in the country's GDP is 35%. In this study total congestion cost
(TCC) consists of 5(five) components. These are TTC (Travel time cost), DWL
(Dead-weight loss which is avoidable Social Cost), EC (Travel delay externality
cost), VOC (Vehicle operating cost or excess fuel cost due to congestion), EC
(Environmental externality cost or air/noise pollution) and RTAC (Road Traffic
Accident Cost). The Total GDP of Bangladesh (in current value) is 173.8189
Billion USD in 2014 (WB Data-bank), while according to this study, it is estimated
that the total economic loss of the traffic congestion is 12.561 Billion USD, which is
around 7%. Certainly, this amount of congestion cost for the lower-middle of
Bangladesh is very much higher compared to any other country of the world. If,
there is no traffic congestion in Dhaka city, and if we calculate this economic loss
from 1971, the GDP of Bangladesh might be much more larger than the present
amount.