Eid is knocking at the door. In present time traveling on Eid holiday has become a bigger demand than performing religious rituals. Despite the socio-economic inequality, the economic empowerment of the people of the country can be felt during the festival days. Many people now visit Singapore-Thailand not only for sightseeing but also for Eid shopping. Needless to say about Kolkata, the city over the border. However, with the increase in people's economic capacity, the tendency to travel within the country to remove the monotony of civil life has also increased to a large extent.
The media has always highlighted the huge potential of tourism in Bangladesh. Scattered tourism centers have bright potential as export sector in the country in terms of foreign exchange earnings. But it is disappointing that the supporting infrastructure to properly exploit this existing potential of tourism is falling apart before it is fully utilized!
According to media reports, even though the much-awaited train service has started to the tourist city of Cox's Bazar, an evil circle is active to disrupt it. The iconic station has been constructed at a huge cost to facilitate the flow of local and foreign tourists in the tourist city of Cox's Bazar. The optimism expressed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the grand opening ceremony of the train launching to Cox's Bazar gave hope to all the travelers.
After the launching of the Chattogram-Cox's Bazar special train on April 8, much emotional news came in the newspapers. The news of train service to Cox's Bazar added a special level of joy for people who could not ride buses. We have also read the news that 'the dream of the old man who wants to go to Cox's Bazar will be fulfilled this time'. But the train was stopped last May 30 (2024) due to 'engine and loco master crisis'. Mozammel Haque Chowdhury of Jatri Kalyan Samiti then claimed that the decision to stop the train was mainly due to the anger of the bus owners of the Dhaka-Cox's Bazar route.
After being closed for 12 days in view of the continuous demands of the travelers, the special train left Chattogram again for Cox's Bazar on the morning of June 12 (2024). Although this news gives new hope, the railway authorities said that the train will run till June 24 'for now'. Cox's Bazar where there is so much interest of tourists, why the authorities could not arrange the required number of engines and loco masters so far? Construction of Cox's Bazar Railway, Iconic Station at the cost of such a huge amount of money - if it is possible to do all this; However, showing the crisis of the engine and loco master is not an excuse?
In the case of national flag carrier Biman Bangladesh Airlines or government telephone operator Teletalk, we have seen how organizations are systematically left behind in the race for service and profit. Examples can be given of many institutions of the state where this evil hand has cast its shadow.
Cox's Bazar's railways and its tourism potential were predicted to fall into the hands of this kind of vicious circle. Many feel that the current agitation over the launch of the long-awaited train is indicative of that. Doubts have arisen about whether train services will be able to break through the monopolistic business dominance of the railways with vested interest in the development of tourist cities. We hope that the government will act on this before the potential of this communication sector collapses.