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Pakistan continues to levy $20 on pilgrims using Kartarpur Corridor: India
Around 130,000 pilgrims from India have used the Kartarpur Corridor opened in 2019 to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan’s Punjab province
NEW DELHI: Pakistan is levying a fee of $20 on every Indian citizen who uses the Kartarpur Corridor to travel without a visa to the Sikh shine located across the border despite the Indian side urging that this charge be dropped, minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan said on Thursday.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Muraleedharan said around 130,000 pilgrims have used the Kartarpur Corridor to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur after its opening in 2019.
India and Pakistan agreed on the facility that allows visa-free travel to the gurdwara built in Pakistan’s Punjab province where Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, spent the last years of his life.
“Since its inauguration on 9 November 2019, the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor has been used by around 130,000 pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur. The government of India has consistently urged the government of Pakistan that, in deference to the wishes of the pilgrims, it should not levy any fee or charge on the pilgrims who visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur through the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor,” Muraleedharan said.
“Pakistan, however, continues to levy $20 on every pilgrim for each visit,” he said.
The agreement between the governments of India and Pakistan for facilitating pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur was signed on October 24, 2019. This was done in order to “fulfil the long-standing demand of Indian citizens and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) to have easy and smooth access” to the gurdwara and to operationalise the corridor in time for the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, Muraleedharan said.
The agreement provides for visa-free travel by Indian pilgrims and OCI cardholders from India to the gurdwara in Pakistan on a daily basis throughout the year.
