Agartala: The Kamalasagar-Kasba border haat in Tripura's Sepahijala district which was shut during the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to reopen by next month, an official said on Tuesday. Haats are weekly markets along the India-Bangladesh border where vendors from both sides sell their ware.
The border haat at Srinagar in South Tripura's Sabroom subdivision has already reopened in May. "Today, the joint border haat management committee held a meeting at Kasba and discussed reopening the trade facility at the earliest. In the meeting, the committee decided to undertake repair work at the haat before reopening it,"Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM), Bishalgarh Binoy Bhusan Das, told PTI over the telephone.
An Indo-Bangla joint team will visit the Kamalasagar-Kasba border haat by next week to prepare an estimate of the repair works. "Once the repair jobs are completed, a joint inspection will be conducted in the first week of July to take a final call on the reopening of the border haat.
"The Bangladesh delegation was positive on reopening the border haat and we are hopeful to do it by the last week of July. There has been a growing demand for immediate reopening of the Kamalasagar-Kasba border haat", Das said.
The four Border Haats, two each in Tripura and Meghalaya, have remained closed since March 2020 after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the consequent lockdowns, causing immense loss to the people living in the bordering villages.
Both the Tripura and Meghalaya governments have been pressing the Centre to take up the matter with the Bangladesh government to resume the Border Haats.
The two Border Haats in Meghalaya — at Balat (East Khasi Hills district) and Kalaichar (South West Garo Hills district) — were reopened last year and both are functional once a week now.
