Bulgaria loses more than two billion leva a year from traffic jams, according to estimates of the Bulgarian Energy Efficiency Agency (EEA), Bulgarian private broadcaster bTV reported on May 5.

The EEA based its calculation on the fact that each Bulgarian lost almost an hour in traffic jams daily. If half that time were spent at work, Bulgaria would have generated an extra 1.2 billion leva a year. If that sum were to be distributed among workers, it would have been equivalent to a five-per-cent salary increase across the board.

In addition, traffic jams incur 600 million leva in losses over spending of extra fuel on the streets. According to EEA executive director Tasko Ermenkov, cars’ wait on semaphores resulted in losing 200 tonnes of extra fuel and 0.5 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a day.

He added that the Easter and Gergyovden holidays generated carbon dioxide savings amounting to 1.2 million tonnes.

According to another calculation of the agency, a fully operational Sofia underground would lead to a 12 per cent decrease in traffic jams and 240 million leva cut of the annual losses.