PM Modi, Shiekh Hasina to inaugurate Kamalasagar border 'haat'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina will jointly inaugurate a border 'haat' (market) at Kamalasagar in Tripura's Sipahijala district, which borders Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh.

The 'haat' would be jointly inaugurated through video conferencing from Dhaka during Modi's two-day visit to Bangladesh beginning from June 6, Sipahijala Additional District Magistrate DK Chakma told reporters on Thursday.

It is, however, yet to be decided whether the inauguration would be on June 6 or the next day, he added. The border haats are set up at the zero line of international border with one part on Indian side and the other in Bangladesh.

"Business in the haat would take place once a week among people living within 5 km radius of the border who would sell and buy locally produced goods and crops. No local taxes would be imposed on the items to be sold in the haats and currencies of both the countries would prevail," Shyamal Dev, senior manager of Tripura Industrial Development Corporation, which is the nodal agency for setting up border haats, told PTI.

Initially 16 items were short listed, including agricultural and horticultural crops, spices, minor forest products excluding timber, fish and dry fish, dairy and poultry products, cottage industry items, wooden furniture, handloom and handicraft items, he said.

The border 'haat' at Kamalasagar is the second in the state after the one at Srinagar in South Tripura district set up to boost bilateral trade between the two countries.

Altogether four border 'haats' would be constructed in Tripura with the other two at Kamalpur in Dhalai district and Dharmanagar in North Tripura district, Dev said.

The cost of construction of Kamalasagar haat, 28 km from here and built on 150 X 150 sq m, was Rs 2.44 crore which would be borne by the Ministry of Commerce, he added. The first border haat was set up in 2012 at Kalaichar in West Garo hills of Meghalaya.