The rugged road is full of potholes all the way, making movement of vehicles difficult.

This has drastically reduced the number of tourists to Kuakata sea resort.

The Kuakata sea beach is a great attraction for tourists, both Bangladeshi and foreigners, who want to enjoy the scenic beauty and high waves of the sea during the rainy season.

But the main hurdle now is the tedious road journey from patuakhali town, many tourists said while talking to this correspondent.

Many vehicles, especially private cars, microbuses and other small vehicles get stranded on the road when stuck up in big holes, they said.

Only five to ten tourists came to out motel a day in the last two months, said an official of Holiday Homes, a motel of Porjatan Corporation. Earlier, at least 200 tourists used to come to our motel every day and we could not accommodate all of them, he said.

The tourists have lost interest due to the bad condition of the road, he added.

Fish traders are also less interested to go to Kuakata because of problem, some traders said.

"We have to pay almost double the rate to hire a truck now to carry fish from Kuakata", said Nimai Chandra, secretary of Mohipur Fish Traders Association.

The Patuakhali-Kuakata road development project involving Tk 126 crore was taken up considering the prospect of tourism and fish farming in the area.

Earlier, the 30 km Patuakhali-Amtali section of the road was constructed at a cost of Tk 44 crore, provided by Danida.

Road and Highways officials in Patuakhali said the Amtali- Kuakata road reconstruction project has been approved by Economic Relations Division (ERD) but work ism yet to start.