Closed for 2 years, Tripura requests Bangladesh to reopen border haats

The Tripura government has requested Bangladesh authorities to resume operation at two border haats from March 26 that were shut down due to Covid-19 pandemic, said Industries and Commerce Minister Manoj Kanti Deb on Wednesday.

The border haats at Srinagar in South district and Kamalasagar in Sepahijala district have been shut since March 23, 2020 due to the pandemic.

The border haats are the local markets that enable small-volume trading along the India-Bangladesh border. Conceived as a confidence-building measure between the two nations, four border haats were set up between 2011 and 2015- two in Meghalaya and two in Tripura.

"Earlier we requested them (Bangladesh) in March last year to reopen the border haats with adherence to Covid-19 guidelines after the union minister for commerce asked to reopen the border haats in June, 2020. But the haats could not be reopened due to prevalence of the Covid-19 in Bangladesh. Hope, the haats can be reopened with approval of the Bangladesh authorities," Deb said while replying to a notice brought by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Shankar Das in Assembly.

Apart from the two border haats, foundation stone for a third haat was laid at Kamalpur in Dhalai district this year and foundation stone for a fourth haat will be laid at Dharmanagar in North District.

Currently, India annually exports a list of goods and materials worth ₹100 crore through Tripura to Bangladesh and imports material worth ₹600 crore.