New Delhi: The home ministry has designated
Dera Baba Nanak
land checkpost in Punjab’s
Gurdaspur district
, the exit and entry point for the proposed corridor to
Kartarpur
Sahib Gurdwara in
Pakistan, as an authorised immigration checkpoint.
In a notification issued on Monday, the home ministry said all “classes of passengers” with valid travel documents can exit or enter through the post.
Kartarpur, where
Guru Nanak
had spent more than 18 years of his life, is located in Shakargarh in Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab. Though Kartarpur Sahib is barely 3-4 kms across the Indo-Pakistan border, Indian pilgrims were required to access it via Lahore. With the development of Kartarpur Sahib corridor, pilgrims can visit the revered shrine through Dera Baba Nanak checkpost, cutting travel time and distance.
Pakistan too is expected to designate an immigration checkpost on its side of the corridor leading to Kartarpur Sahib.
On November 26 last year, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu had laid the foundation stone of the Dera Baba Nanak-Kartarpur Sahib Corridor at an event at Mann village in
Gurdaspur
district.
On November 28, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the four-km corridor on the Pakistan side, which is expected to be completed by 2019.
The much-awaited corridor will connect the Kartarpur Gurdwara with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib that was established in 1522 by Guru Nanak Dev.
The Kartarpur corridor will be implemented as an integrated development project with Government of India funding, to provide smooth and easy passage, with all the modern amenities.
Bharti Jain is senior editor with The Times of India, New Delhi. ...
Read MoreBharti Jain is senior editor with The Times of India, New Delhi. She has been writing on security matters since 1996. Having covered the Union home ministry, security agencies, Election Commission and the ‘prime’ political beat, the Congress, for The Economic Times all these years, she moved to TOI in August 2012. Her repertoire of news stories delves into the whole gamut of issues related to terrorism and internal strife, besides probing strategic affairs in India’s neighbourhood.
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