India shares with Pak coordinates of crossing point of the Kartarpur corridor

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 22

India on Tuesday shared with Pakistan the coordinates of the crossing point of the proposed Kartarpur corridor which will link Baba Nanak village in Punjab to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Narowal in Pakistan. 

India has also proposed two dates—February 26 and March 7, 2019—for a Pakistan delegation to visit New Delhi to discuss and decide the finer details.

Pakistan said on Monday it shared a draft agreement on the Kartarpur Corridor with India and invited New Delhi to urgently send a delegation to Islamabad to negotiate and finalise the proposal.

Both sides are yet to finalise the modalities of travel of the Indian pilgrims to the Gurudwara.

The MEA said it has proposed two sets of dates for the visit by the Pakistani delegation here so that the Indian pilgrims can visit the holy Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib using the corridor at the "earliest".

"Pursuant to the decision taken by the government of India on November 22, 2018, to expeditiously realise the long pending proposal to establish Kartarpur corridor, India has today shared the coordinates of the zero point (crossing point) of the corridor along the International Border with Pakistan," the MEA said.

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu and Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on November 26 last year laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur corridor in Gurdaspur district.

Two days later on November 28, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan laid the foundation stone of the corridor at Narowal, 125 km from Lahore.

The decision to build the corridor—from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district to the international border—was taken by the Union Cabinet on November 22. 

The corridor was a long-pending demand of Sikhs. Pakistan has committed to open the corridor in November on the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. With PTI