Economic and environmental impact analysis of new road network project, connecting the inland metropolitan cities with port city of Karachi in Pakistan

Most of the developing countries face a lack of infrastructure facilities, where the road transport network is one of them. In this paper, firstly impacts of new road network project connecting with port city and inland metropolitan cities or northwest part of Pakistan are analyzed by using Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model. Secondly, for the estimation of economic and environmental impacts of this project, a multi-regional CGE model is proposed. It is found that construction of this project is going to change the industrial structure, especially in production of manufacturing sector, and it will also change the Equivalent Variation (EV). It is also observed that remarkable economic and environmental impacts appeared in the inland metropolitan cities or northwest region than the rest of Pakistan. After analysis of these impacts, it is easy for government to make proper policy for maintaining economic impacts and reducing environmental impacts on national and regional level. (author)