Tourist ships to Saint Martin’s Island set to resume tomorrow

Highlights:

• Tourist ship services resume tomorrow
• Three approved vessels will operate from Cox’s Bazar
• Daily visitor limit remains capped at 3,500
• Tourists can stay overnight until 15 March

Passenger ships will finally resume services from Cox’s Bazar to Saint Martin’s Island tomorrow (5 November), four days after the island officially reopened to tourists on 1 November, with no vessels operating during that period.

Three ships — MV Bar Aulia, MV Karnaphuli and MV Teknaf — are scheduled to depart one after another from Nuniachhara jetty on the Bakkhali River in Cox’s Bazar town tomorrow morning.

The government had opened the island to visitors from 1 November, but ship services could not begin because of various complications.

The ships can now sail after getting the required approvals from all the government agencies concerned and the consent of the Cox’s Bazar deputy commissioner, said Hossain Islam Bahadur, general secretary of the Sea Cruise Operators Owners Association of Bangladesh.

He also said preparations were underway to resume services regardless of the number of tourists.

The three vessels, which have received approval from the Department of Shipping and the Department of Environment, have a combined passenger capacity of 2,298. MV Bar Aulia can carry 850 passengers, MV Karnaphuli 732, and MV Teknaf 716.

According to the schedule provided by those involved, MV Bar Aulia will leave Cox’s Bazar at 7am and depart from Saint Martin’s at 2:30pm. MV Karnaphuli will leave at 7:15am and return from the island at 2:15pm, while MV Teknaf will depart at 8:15am and return at 3:30pm.

Under the government’s revised guidelines, tourists will be allowed to visit the island and stay overnight during the four-and-a-half-month period from 1 November to 15 March.

Each visitor must pay a Tk100 environmental conservation fee. Tourists must also carry a travel pass and a ticket with a QR code, as required previously. A maximum of 3,500 tourists will be allowed to visit the island each day.

To protect the island’s environment and biodiversity, restrictions imposed under last year’s notification will remain in force. Lighting fires or lights on the beach and adjacent areas at night, making loud noises, and holding barbecue parties are prohibited.

Visitors are also barred from entering keora forests or collecting, buying or selling keora fruit.

Activities that could harm the island’s biodiversity, including sea turtles, birds, coral, snails, mussels, starfish, horseshoe crabs, seagrass and seaweed, are prohibited.

Motorcycles and water vehicles such as sea bikes are also barred from the beach.