India has proposed dates in the first week of September to finalise the agreement on operationalising the Kartarpur Corridor in time for the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, people familiar with developments said on Thursday.
The meeting on finalising the agreement on the modalities of the corridor, which will link Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur district to Darbar Sahib gurdwara at Kartarpur in Pakistan, will be a follow-up to meetings of technical experts, the people said.
The technical-level meetings have focused on finalising the alignment of the temporary road for the corridor, modalities to exchange information about using the corridor, and modalities to cope with emergencies, including medical cases, they said.
“We have proposed dates in the first week of September for a meeting at Attari to finalise the agreement on modalities for the Kartarpur corridor,” said a person who didn’t want to be named.
The people further said that work on physical infrastructure for the corridor, including the passenger terminal building and highway, is progressing on time. A senior official of the home ministry is chairing regular meetings of the inter-ministerial empowered group to monitor progress and ensure timely implementation of state-of-the-art facilities on the Indian side, they added.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal told a regular news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday that a meeting of technical experts of the two sides will be held at the zero point on the international border on August 30.
{{/usCountry}}Pakistan’s Foreign Office spokesman Mohammad Faisal told a regular news briefing in Islamabad on Thursday that a meeting of technical experts of the two sides will be held at the zero point on the international border on August 30.
{{/usCountry}}“India concurred to Pakistan’s proposal and the technical meeting on Kartarpur Corridor is being held on August 30 at the zero point,” he said, referring to the point at which the Indian and Pakistani sides of the corridor will converge.
The corridor will facilitate visa-free movement of Indian pilgrims, who will have to obtain a permit to visit Darbar Sahib, built at the spot where Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, spent the last years of his life.
Despite tensions over the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, both India and Pakistan have said they are committed to opening the Kartarpur Corridor in time for the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in November.