Traffic Congestion in Dhaka City and its Economic Impact

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.