China to open market on India border

China on Thursday announced that a vital trade market on the strategic Sino-India border along Sikkim would open twice a week from June, setting up the first direct trade link between the two countries since the 1962 war.

"The 6,400-sq-mt market, named Dongqinggang, is located by the mountain road 16 kms from the 4,545-mt high Nathu La Pass, where Yatung County of China's Tibet Autonomous Region and India's Sikkim State meet," the official Xinhua news agency reported, signalling that China has recognised Sikkim as a part of India.

According to the plan, the market would open twice a week from June for four hours a day after its construction is completed, the report from Lhasa, Tibet's capital, said.

"Construction is going on at a brisk pace and 60 per cent of it has been completed. Everything should be finished before the deadline," said Basang Cering, an official of Yatung County, also the chief director at the construction site.

Construction of roads leading to Nathu La Pass is also under way, but is often clogged by heavy snow. A total of 1,550 workers are now working on the site to try to finish it in time.

Nathu La Pass, which used to be a 'hot spot' for trade between China and India, took over 80 per cent of their total border trading volume at the beginning of the 20th century. But trading over the Pass was suspended in 1962.