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Sea ride made too risky for tourists

Two ships carry several times more than capacity from Teknaf to St Martin's Island

A Correspondent, Cox's Bazar
l\vo ships--Keari Sindbad and LTC Kutubdia--are ferrying tourists from Teknaf in Cox's Bazar to St Martin's Island on sea route at huge risk as they are carrying passengers several times more than their capacity.
Passengers also alleged that the two ships charge excess fare creating adverse reaction among the tourists.
Some journalists on a spot visit at 9:00am on Saturday found that Keari Sindbad took 1,170 passengers for a fare ofTk 700 to 1,000 per head and ETC Kutubdia took about 2,200 tourists on board. After boarding the ships the tourists were surprised as they did not find room to stand comfortably, let alone find a seat.
After returning from the spot by the newsmen, Teknaf upazila administration on the day fined LTC Kutubdia and Keari Sindbad Tk 20,000 and Tk 10,000 respectively for carrying passengers beyond their capacity.
Sources concerned said ETC Kutubdia started ferrying passengers from September 22 and Keari Sindbad from September 24.
The ships leave Teknaf between 9:00am and 9:30am after crossing about 25km on the Naf river and the Bay of Bengal and reach St Martin's Island between 12noon and 1:00pm. The ships on their return journey carrying tourists reachTeknaf around 3:30pm.
Meanwhile, three tourists fell into the river while boarding Keari Sindbad using a wooden ladder on Friday morning. Later, they were rescued, sources said.
A tourist Alamgir Chowdhury, 45, who came from Moghbazar in Dhaka said last year he went to St Martin s Island by Keari Sindbad by paying a fare ofTk 300 per head fare. This time he had to payTk 750 for a ticket of the same ship.
The ship owners have increased ticket price several times on the excuse of excessive rush of tourists and on the other hand they are carrying
four to five times more passengers than their capacity. The administration's monitoring in the regard is not visible, he alleged.
Alamgir said on Friday when Keari Sindbad took about 1,000 tourists some of them objected to it but its manager Shah Alam did not pay heed to them rather took some more tourists on board. "Later I and some other tourists got off the ship and returned to Cox's Bazar," he said.
Refuting the allegation Shalt Alam said their ship left for St Martin's Island carrying 400 passengers on Friday morning and realised Tk 600 to 700 as fare per head.
Shahabuddin. manager of St Martin Jetty, said on Friday he realised the fixed revenue allowing 2,959 passengers to get on the Island. Of them, LTC Kutubdia carried 1,980 passengers while Keari Sindbad 989 tourists.
Tofael Ahmed, former vice president of Tour Operators Association, Cox's Bazar (TOAC) said last year five ships plied this route but now only the two ships are plying. As a result, they are carrying more passengers than their capacity.
Another official of TOAC said passenger carrying capacity of Keari Sindbad is 280 while ETC Kutubdia, 490.
Teknaf Upazila Nirbahi Officer AMM Nazimuddin said they have shortage of manpower to monitor carrying excess passengers and realising high fare as most of the staff have gone on leave for Eid. He said a committee would be formed in a day or two in this regard.
Police Super Mohammad Sakhawat Hossain said the journey of tourists on Teknaf-St Martin route should be safe. So, police would see to it, he said.
Thousands of tourists have thronged Cox's Bazar from the day after the Eid-ul Fitr. Several thousand tourists not finding accommodation in the town are going to Teknaf and St Martin's Island, sources said.