Sea tourism gets a boost

Karnafuly Ship Builders launched a luxury cruise ship—MV Bay One—on January 14 for the travellers to go from Chattogram to Saint Martin's Island with ease.

The ship capable of carrying 2,000 people at a time started its inaugural journey from the port city's Patenga Water Bus Terminal with over 800 passengers.

"The 400-foot cruise ship is 55 feet wide and 5.4 metres in depth. It has an average speed of 16.1 nautical miles per hour," said MA Rashid, managing director of Karnafuly Ship Builders Ltd.

"However, the ship is equipped with state-of-the-art 11,200 brake horsepower main propulsion engine, which can help it to go as fast as 24 nautical miles per hour," he said.

Once, the ship used to travel to different destinations from Tokyo. The name of the vessel was changed from Salvia Maru to Cruise Ship Bay One when Karnafuly Ship Builders imported it from Japan.

The multi-floored ship built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in Japan's Kobe city reached Chattogram port on September 19 last year through Andaman sea and the Bay of Bengal.

The ship was brought in to travel between Cox's Bazar to Saint Martin's Island. But the company had to change the route and start its journey from Chattogram to the island due to lack of jetty facilities in Cox's Bazar.

Steps are now ongoing to build a jetty for the berthing of the ship at Darianagar in Cox's Bazar, the managing director of the company said.

"We are planning to add international routes soon, as our ship is registered with the International Maritime Organisation as a Star Class sea vessel."

The vessel run by a team of 167 crew members has a total of 2,000 seats of different categories, including presidential suites, bunk bed cabin, twin bed cabin and comfortable chairs.

Each return ticket in the ship from Chattogram to Saint Martin's Island will range between Tk 3,000 to Tk 50,000.

The economy class seats will cost the travellers Tk 3,000 each and Tk 4,000 for business class seats.

Tk 50,000 will be charged if anyone wants to complete the journey occupying a cabin under the VVIP package. There is also a family package, under which the travellers can book special class bunkers for four at Tk 50,000.

The royal suites will cost Tk 45,000, presidential suites Tk 30,000 and single bunker beds Tk 10,000.

For one-way travels, both the VVIP and family packages seats will cost Tk 25,000 each while the royal suites Tk 20,000, presidential suites Tk 15,000 and single bunker beds Tk 7,500 each.

The ticket prices for economy and business class seats will be Tk 2,000 and Tk 2,500 each.

Primarily, the ship will start from Chattogram on every Thursday at 11pm from January 21 onwards and will leave Saint Martin's Island at 11am on every Saturday.