Part of Patenga beach attracts crowd before official reopening

The beachfront Patenga promenade is wide open to the tourists amid a Covid-19 pandemic ban and that hundreds of spectators throng the cemented shoreline in the port city.

The government lifted the lockdown on August 11 when public transports, shopping malls and industries reopened except tourist spots and other entertainment facilities. The government has declared that the tourism and entertainment industries, parks and other amusement centres will reopen on Thursday (August 19), respectively.

While visiting the Patenga Sea Beach, this correspondent found scores of people have been coming to the beachfront esplanade with friends and families and taking snacks and full meals, as well.

However, the main Sea beach is still off-boundary to the visitors.

Ali Azam, a vendor, who sells crab fries and other snacks said they were allowed to reopen their makeshift restaurants on Saturday.

“In the last two months we had no earning but the local administration allowed us today to open our businesses,” Azam said.

On the occasion of 15th August, a National Mourning Day and also a public holiday, Azam, who has been in the business for the last 25 years, expected good sales.

Not only Azam, all the temporary shopkeepers along the beach had found earning their bread difficult amid the lockdown imposed to combat Covid-19 and lessen its transmission.

Another vendor who sells cotton-candy said holidays and some other occasional days are good for doing business at the shore, an estuary of the Karnaphuli River.

The candy seller said this informal beach was open amid the lockdown but there were no visitors.

“Lockdown is a curse on us,” he said, who did not disclose his name.

Meanwhile, since 11th August, as the lockdown was withdrawn and public transports, markets, shopping malls reopened people started to visit Patenga, vendors said.

M Jubair, the officer-in-Charge of Patenga Police Station said, “We kept our surveillance on the main beach so that nobody pays a visit.”

He said the extension of the beach, which does not have good access to the water, was opened in the last two months.

There is no accurate estimate about how many people are making their living on the beachfront, Jubair said.

The infection rate and number of deaths have been steady in Chattogram and that the city is considered a hotspot for the deadly virus by the health officials.

People are not aware of maintaining social distance and wearing masks, which might cause more infections and deaths in the coming months, health officials warn.