Cox's Bazar

by Rasaf Ibrahim on Sep 08, 2021

Cox's Bazar is a city, fishing port, tourism centre, and district headquarters in southeastern Bangladesh. It is famous mostly for its long natural sandy beach. It is located 150 km (93 mi) south of the city of Chittagong. Cox's Bazar is also known by the name Panowa, which translates literally as "yellow flower". Another old name was "Palongkee". It has one of the longest sea beaches in the world.

The modern Cox's Bazar derives its name from Captain Hiram Cox, an officer of the British East India Company, a Superintendent of Palongkee outpost. To commemorate his role in refugee rehabilitation work, a market was established and named after him.

The city covers an area of 23.4 km2 (9.0 sq mi) with 27 mahallas and 9 wards and as of 2011 had a population of 265,500. Cox's Bazar is connected by road and air with Chittagong.

Economy

The major economic activity in Cox's Bazar is tourism. A number of hotels, guest houses, and motels have been built in the city and coastal region, and many people are involved in the service industry. Oysters, snails, pearls and their ornaments are very popular with tourists and people are involved in the transportation business for tourists.

People are involved in fishing and collecting seafood and sea products for their livelihood. Cox's Bazar is one of the few major spots for aquaculture in Bangladesh. Along with Khulna, it is considered a major source of revenue from foreign exchanges. Besides a mix of small-scale agriculture, marine and inland fishing and salt production are other industrial sources that play important roles in the national economy.

In April 2007, as Bangladesh was connected to the submarine cable network as a member of the SEA-ME-WE-4 Consortium, Cox's Bazar was selected as the landing station of the submarine cable.

Transportation

The N1 is the national highway that connects the city with country's capital and largest city Dhaka as well as with many other parts of the country

The city of Cox's Bazar is served by Cox's Bazar Airport, located at the north-west of the city. It is Bangladesh's one of busiest and domestic airport. The main frequent airlines of the airport are Biman Bangladesh Airlines, US-Bangla Airlines, Novoair and Regent Airways. In November 2020, Biman Bangladesh Airlines started flight between Sylhet to Cox's Bazar, which was in a first, a direct flight between two cities without any connecting flight from Dhaka. Cox's Bazar Airport is in the process of being upgraded to an international airport in order to attract more tourists.This will make it the fourth international airport in Bangladesh.

The Cox's Bazar railway station is the main railway station of the district under construction which will provide trains on national routes operated by the state-run Bangladesh Railway. It is expected to be completed by June in 2022.