Congestion caused by unplanned urbanisation in Dhaka is creating a loss worth 2.5 percent of the Gross Domestic Production (GDP) directly, according to a research paper presented Thursday.
The paper, presented on the second day of the Annual Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) Conference on Development (ABCD) 2021, highlighted that the total loss for the congestions would be up to 6% of the GDP considering the indirect effects.
Policy Research Institute (PRI) Director Dr Ahmed Ahsan presented the paper titled “Dhaka’s Overgrowth and Its Cost” on the three-day event at a city hotel marking 50 years of Bangladesh.
“Concentration of economic activity is often the result of efficient market forces, returns to scale, and agglomeration economies, forces that create urban centres and cities. These developments are central to growth,” Dr Ahmed said.
He noted 1% urban development would ensure about 0.8 percent of the economic growth in Bangladesh.
“However, there are also economic limits to concentration. This is why cities don’t grow in an unlimited way,” he added.
Quoting the data of the Household Income and Expenditure Survey of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, he said the rate of poverty reduction is reducing in urban areas.
The growth of real wage in urban areas reduced to 8 percent from in 2017 which was 12 percent in 2010, he added.
The research revealed that Dhaka city is the residence of about 11.2 percent of the total population of the country which is the highest in the region.
Meanwhile, the largest city of China is the residence of only 1.8 percent of the population and the rate is 2 percent in India, 4 percent in Indonesia, 8.9 percent in Pakistan and 8.1 percent in Vietnam.
“India has 54 cities living with more than 1 million people which is 14 for Indonesia, 10 for Pakistan. But Bangladesh has only 5 such cities,” said the PRI Director.
Traffic congestion in the capital has steadily been worsening owing to the growing number of vehicles on city streets.
Hundreds of thousands of working hours are being wasted due to the long unending traffic jams, resulting in financial losses worth several thousand crores of taka.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 10% of the country’s population live in and around Dhaka. Due to increasing demand, the number of private cars has also been going up. The number of vehicles registered for traffic in the capital has more than tripled in the last 10 years.
According to international standards, a maximum of 216,000 vehicles can ply on the roads of the capital. But at present, the number of vehicles plying on the city streets is more than eight times that number. The speed of vehicles on the roads of Dhaka is less than seven kilometres per hour.
The three days annual conference will continue till Friday.
