Siliguri, Aug. 31: Bangladesh has endorsed the demand for starting bilateral trade through Fulbari, 15km from here.

“Our government has no problems on the issue of opening a land port in Fulbari,” Qamrul Hasan, the first secretary (commercial) of Bangladesh Deputy High Commission, said at a news meet here today. “We want the Indian government to take proactive steps in this direction.”

The diplomat added that his government is keen on coming up with more land ports, especially on the border in the Northeast. But first, India should upgrade the infrastructure of the existing land ports, said Hasan.

“We have brought about significant improvement in the infrastructure on our side,” Hasan said. “For example at Petrapole, which is the sole entry point for hilsa, we have come up with a state-of-the-art port, whereas on the Indian side, there has been very little development.”

Hasan said only about half of the 36 land ports between the two countries are fully operational because of inadequate infrastructure.

The first secretary is here for the Second Siliguri Trade Show, which will begin tomorrow. “In all, 28 companies from Bangladesh are taking part in the 12-day fair,” said A.B. Zaffar Ahmed, councillor (press, education and sports). “A wide range of products will be on offer including jamdani saris, handicraft, furniture and food-items.”

However, a four-month ban in Bangladesh on the export of hilsa will break many a heart here. “The ban had to be imposed because this year there wasn’t enough hilsa for domestic consumption and prices had shot up to as high as Rs 800-900 per kg in Bangladesh,” Hasan said.

The first secretary added that soon Bangladesh would be exporting readymade garments to India. “The Indian government has recently decided to allow the import of eight million garment pieces duty free,” he said.

Earlier, the duty rates were very high, Hasan added.