Second border haat opens in Tripura

Agartala, June 11: The Kamala Sagar border haat, 35km southwest of Agartala town in Bishalgarh subdivision, was operationalised today by senior officials of India and Bangladesh through a simple function within the haat complex.

This border haat, second to be operationalised after the Srinagar haat in Sabroom subdivision along the Tripura-Bangladesh border, will function on Thursdays every week and 25 vendorsraders each from both India and Bangladesh will carry on transactions there.

A cultural programme commenced at 11am to mark the operationalisation of the market. Pradip Chakraborty, district magistrate of Sipahijala, addressed the gathering and discussed the process, which culminated in the setting up of the border haats.

"The leadership of both the countries had started thinking about border haats for higher volumes of trade and commerce since 2010 and finally in October last year a memorandum of understanding was signed. The Srinagar haat was opened in January this year and progressed better than expected," Chakraborty said.

M. Nagaraju, the commissioner for industries and commerce, said four more border haats were expected to be opened in a phased manner at Khowai, Kamalpur, Kailasahar and Dharmangar subvisional towns. He hoped that regular trade and commerce between the two countries would result in better relation and understanding.

The deputy commissioner of Brahmanbaria district in Bangladesh, Mosharaff Hossain, and additional district magistrate Najma Begum stressed on the close cultural bond between the people of Bangladesh and Tripura and hoped that more bilateral trade would close the trade gap between the two countries.

After the inaugural programme, 20 vendors from Bangladesh and 12 from India sat with their merchandise for trade.

"Twenty-five vendors each from both sides within a 5km radius of the border haat will be permitted to transact business every Thursday between 9.30am and 3.30pm," said Chakraborty.

He hoped the trading would soon gain momentum with the likely induction of fish from Bangladesh for sale.