Kartarpur corridor access mode undecided: Centre

New Delhi, January 18

Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the mode of access for Indian devotees headed for Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara in Pakistan was yet to be decided by the two countries.

“Whether access will be given to them by using passport as a travel document or visa will be applied, are issues that are to be discussed bilaterally between the two countries. It is yet to be finalised,” Puri said.

“We have so far decided that the access from our side, the main road which goes up there and the specific corridor, we will complete in a time-bound manner,” he said.

Puri, however, lamented that the cartographer who drew the boundary between India and Pakistan after Partition, must have been “insensitive” as he carved out the place belonging to Guru Nanak Dev from India.

The 4-km corridor will connect Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district with Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib in Narowal in Pakistan. It will provide access to Sikh pilgrims to the historic shrine in the neighbouring country.

Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism, is believed to have spent more than 18 years of his life there. The Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara is located on the banks of the Ravi, about 3-4 km from the Indo-Pak border.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the corridor was performed by Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan in November last year.

On Indian side, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had laid the foundation stone of the corridor in Gurdaspur last year. — PTI