A state-owned vessel will begin plying a water route between Kyauktaw in Arakan State and Chin State’s Paletwa once a week, according to the Arakan State Administration Council, a subsidiary of Myanmar’s junta.

The K1,800-per-person ferry service will run on Fridays, said U Hla Thein, an information officer and attorney-general for the Arakan State Administration Council.

Travel expenses between Kyauktaw and Paletwa total about K50,000 round trip, and the Arakan State Administration Council will launch the waterway services beginning this week to reduce costs, U Hla Thein said.

“The main purpose of state-owned vessels is to transport passengers and goods. Currently, the vessel is operating only one day a week,” he added.

The state-owned vessel Yay Nayar (1) is set to operate the water route between Kyauktaw and Paletwa.

U Aung Win Soe, the administrator of Ywama ward in Paletwa Township, said that if the government-owned vessel operates a Kyauktaw-Paletwa water route as planned, it will reduce costs for travellers.

“It will be convenient for locals to travel. Before the fighting in Arakan State, a person had to pay only K20,000 for a boat trip, but the price has risen to over K25,000 per person,” he told DMG.

U Tin Oo, a resident of Paletwa Township, said he hoped authorities would not conduct rigorous interrogations or inspections of passengers on the forthcoming Kyauktaw-Paletwa route.

The military often inspected travelers on the Kyauktaw-Paletwa waterway in the past, according to locals.

Many residents and retailers in Paletwa Township buy foodstuffs such as rice, cooking oil and iodised salt from suppliers in Kyauktaw.