Prospects of four additional border haats are being evaluated, said a top official of the commerce ministry in Bangladesh to rediff.com recently.The new border haats, to be set up in Tripura and Mizoram, follows the success of two existing border haats near Meghalaya.
"We have already given our consent on four border haats in Tripura," said the commerce ministry official.
"Implementation of the haats and its initiation depends on the Indian side," added the official. The four likely spots for the border haats are near Srinagar in Sabroom, Kamalpur in Dhalai district, Kashba in Sipahijala district and Raghna in north Tripura, India.
On June 10, a five day-long joint study by India and Bangladesh was initiated at Tripura to analyse the prospects of potential border haats (border markets) there.
Besides Tripura, similar joint studies will also be conducted in north eastern Indian states of Mizoram, Meghalaya and Assam soon.
"The prospects of four other spots for haats in Mizoram are also under examination," said the official. The official explained how the border haats are actually helping nationals of both countries on either side of the border.
"The principle behind the border haat is to have a market for consumers in a hard to reach area," he said.
He pointed out that all around the 4,000-kilometre border between Bangladesh and India there are pockets of communities which are disconnected from economic areas of their countries.
"They have no access to mainland. So, at border haats, they can buy essentials and commodities conveniently," he said.
For most of the border residents, markets are really far away from their communities. He explained that the two existing border haats cater to
people living within a five kilometre radius from it.
"This ensures that people from either side of the border can come to the haat and buy commodities," he added. "These haats are entirely for the border people and neither of the two governments is making any profit from these," he said, implying the good will that is growing between the two sides.
The commerce ministry official pointed out that besides agricultural products from India, industrial goods from Bangladesh are sold at the border haats.
The five day-long joint study, earlier this month, included five members each from either country evaluating trade related issues between the two neighbours.
Besides border haat prospects, the joint team also inspected existing infrastructure for border trade, conditions of Land Custom Stations and construction of bridge on the river Feni in South Tripura of India. The bridge will connect Chittagong port in Bangladesh with North-Eastern India.
Foreign Trade Director of India for Saarc countries, Indira Murthy, who led the five-member team of India during the joint study, was quoted by PTI as saying, "The joint team would study all the existing trade facilities between the two countries and suggest measures to the respective government for its improvement."
During the study, B Shyam, representative of Bangladesh government, said to reporters, "We are interested to make more trade with India's North-East and our government is interested to develop infrastructure in our side for boosting the trade."
PTI also quoted Jitendra Chowdhury, Tripura Minister for Trade and Commerce, as saying that earlier in 1996 the Land Custom Station at Sabroom was withdrawn but the central government of late has ordered for opening of the LCS for trade with India.
With the sanction of the Sabroom LCS, the total number of the LCS has risen to eight in the state.
