A tourist ship named Bar Aulia carrying 517 tourists left Teknaf for St Martin’s on Wednesday morning, resuming tourist transport operations to the island after a hiatus of six months.
The ship departed from Damdamia Jetty ghat in Teknaf around 10am and reached the island just after noon.
Tourists were flocking to board the ship in the morning, and members of the Bangladesh Coast Guard, River Police and officials of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority performed supervision duties.
BIWTA Chittagong acting deputy director Nayan Sheel said that no ship is allowed to carry extra passengers.
Bar Aulia has a capacity of carrying 850 passengers.
Amir Hamza, a student of Dhaka University who was going to St Martin’s, said: “I am very happy to be going to the coral island Saint Martin’s for a second time. We have 20 members in our team. However, on the way to Teknaf, the condition of the road was awful.”
Cox's Bazar Tour Operators Association (TUAC) Senior Vice President Hossainul Islam Bahadur said on the first day of the resumption of operations, the first ship left for Saint Martin’s with 517 tourists with the permission of the deputy commissioner.
The sea appears to be calm, he added.
Teknaf Upazila Nirbahi Officier (UNO) Mohammad Adnan Chowdhury said with the permission of the authorities, these ships have started sailing on a trial basis.
Monitoring is underway to ensure that tourists do not face any problems, he added.
Tourist ship operations on the Teknaf-Saint Martin route were halted on March 20.
A seven-day program is underway in Cox's Bazar for World Tourism Day.
As part of this, tourist vessels have been permitted to operate on the Saint Martin's route starting Wednesday.