Pakistan completes 90 per cent work on Kartarpur Corridor

Islamabad : Pakistan has completed 90 per cent work on the Kartarpur Corridor from the zero line to Gurdwara Sahib and plans to inaugurate it on the 550 birth celebrations of Guru Nanak in November this year, according to a media report.

The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib, which was established in 1522 by Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak Dev.

The first batch of pilgrims from India will arrive in Pakistan on November 9, however, the number has not yet been specified, the Express Tribune reported.

According to the report, 90 per cent work on the Kartarpur Corridor, including the construction of the main road, bridge and buildings from zero line to Gurdwara Sahib has been completed by Pakistan.

"From the Pakistani side of the border, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa are likely to inaugurate the corridor on the occasion of Baba Guru Nanak's anniversary in November," the report said.

Both sides have agreed to maintain a channel of communication and work towards finalisation of the agreement.

The technical teams will meet again to ensure seamless connectivity for the corridor is operational in time so that the pilgrimage can begin on the 550 birth celebrations of Guru Nanak this year, the report added.

In November 2018, India and Pakistan agreed to set up a border crossing linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur - the final resting place of Guru Nanak - to Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab's Gurdaspur district.

The shrine is visible from the Indian side of the border and every day a larger number of Sikh devotees gather to perform Darshan or sacred viewings of the site.

The Kartarpur corridor is expected to provide visa-free access to Indian Sikh pilgrims to the gurdwara in Kartarpur Sahib — a small town in Narowal, four kilometres from the Pakistan-India border, where Guru Nanak spent the last 18 years of his life.

This will also be the first visa-free corridor between the two nuclear-armed neighbours since their independence in 1947.

Pakistan will build the corridor from the Indian border to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, while the other part from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur up to the border will be constructed by India.