The country’s first-ever tourist bus service has been introduced at Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf Marine Drive road. Cox’s Bazar Additional District Magistrate Md Shahjahan Ali inaugurated the tourist bus service at Inani, Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday. Shahjahan Ali said, “This is adding a new feature in our Cox’s Bazar. It will help attract more local and foreign travelers to visit Cox’s Bazar as well as the Marine Drive, the longest uninterrupted marine drive of the world.”
Titled ‘Aquaholic Tourist Caravan’, the new tourist bus service will help the tourists enjoy the 80 kilometers long marine drive with a different experience. A group of 10 friends initiated to introduce such a bus service in the country. The rooftop of this bus has been kept open for tourists to enjoy the panoramic wide view of seas-shore nature and scenic beauty of the hills.
Aquaholic Tourist Caravan managing director Tanvir Ahmed said, “At present, we are starting the tourist coach service with one bus, based on the demand we have the plan to introduce more tourist buses with all modern amenities in the coming days”. “The bus is a double-decker, there are 36 seats on the first deck while 12 on the top. Every day, the bus will start its journey from Rezu Khal Bridge.
Tourists will be escorted there from Kolatoli through minibus,” he added. It is to be noted, for tourism promotion, such kinds of buses are available in different countries of the world. The specialty of this bus is that the roof is open. Tourists can travel and enjoy at the same time.
The concerned authority said that on this bus, the journey fare from Kalatali to Teknaf has been fixed at Tk 2,000. Morning snacks, lunch and evening snacks are all included in this. A library is also set up inside the bus, both local and foreign books are available there. Besides, the bus also includes toilet and WiFi facilities.
Tourism experts are welcoming such tourist bus introduction for tourists on the Marine Drive road. Cox’s Bazar–Tekhnaf Marine Drive is an 80-kilometer-long road from Cox’s Bazar to Teknaf along the Bay of Bengal. It was inaugurated on May 6, 2017, by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. There are green hills on one side of the road and on the other is the ocean, which attracts a good number of tourists to visit there every day. The new tourist bus will play a vital role to promote tourism in the area.
