India, Bangladesh plan to set up 16 border haats to increase trade

New Delhi and Dhaka are considering the establishment of 16 new border haats to increase the volume of trade between the two countries, according to Smita Pant, a senior diplomat in the Ministry of External Affairs.

- Shashank Mattoo

According to Pant, the two countries have eight haats operational, which are located across a number of northeastern states like Tripura and Meghalaya. Pant was delivering remarks at a conference focused on connectivity between India’s Northeast and Bangladesh, organized by Asian Confluence, a think-tank.

"A border haat is ‘a rough-and-ready market’ allowing ‘local people to trade in locally-grown agricultural and manufactured’ items along the border," explains Nazneen Ahmed in an article for the Observer Research Foundation, a New Delhi-based think tank.