Kartarpur corridor green lit, India and Pakistan to begin construction soon

India today announced that it will start construction of the Kartarpur corridor up to the international border.

The corridor will begin from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Punjab and will end at the international border, on the Indian side. The government says it will ask Pakistan government to build a similar corridor stretch on its land up to the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur.

The corridor is being built to facilitate the visit by Indian pilgrims to the holy Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur, where Guru Nanak spent his last 18 years.

The Kartarpur corridor will be built as an integrated development project with funding from the Indian government.

Pakistan, on its part, too has decided to begin building the Kartarpur corridor later this month, with Prime Minister Imran Khan likely to lay the foundation stone of the project.

According to officials, while a date for beginning the construction has not been set, the Pakistan government wants the announcement to coincide with the arrival of Sikh pilgrims, who are currently in the country to observe the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh faith.

They said that a survey in this regard has already been conducted, and the government plans to complete the corridor's construction by next year.

The Kartarpur Sahib corridor was first proposed in 1999 when the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee took a bus ride to Lahore. The Sikhs had been demanding that the two countries should revoke restrictions on movement of pilgrims to the holy shrine.

Currently, there is no restriction on an Indian pilgrim going to Pakistan on a regular visa. So, anyone can visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib without requiring any special permission from Pakistani authorities.

Sikh jathas are known to visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib on four occasions every year -- Guru Nanak's birth anniversary, Baisakhi, Guru Arjan Dev's martyrdom day and Maharaja Ranjit Singh's death anniversary.(Source:defencenews.in)