Dera Baba Nanak in big league

Ravi Dhaliwal in Dera Baba Nanak

Unprecedented development is being seen in Dera Baba Nanak town, the starting point of the 4.6-km-long Kartarpur corridor.

Days after the project was announced, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh set up the Dera Baba Nanak Development Authority (DBNDA) to ensure there was no haphazard growth.

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The state government has allocated Rs 170 crore to set up new ventures and  upgrade old ones like the civil hospital and the bus stand. The railway station is being refurbished with funds provided by the rail ministry. The bus stand has a new address on the outskirts of the city. With this, a lot of space has been made available in the otherwise cramped town.

The 500-metre road running through the main bazaar is being converted into a heritage street on the lines of the one in Amritsar. A food court is also coming up nearby. The District Administrative Complex (DAC) of this sub-divisional town is also being given a new look.

Punjab State Power Supply Corporation (PSPCL) officials have already ensured quality power supply with no fluctuations. The century-old government senior secondary school has been declared a heritage site.

The popular ‘Seechewal model’ of collecting sewerage water into a pond where a wire meshing is used to filter objects flowing into water is being adopted in 50 villages. Polluted water is taken into two wells where silt and other extraneous material are taken away before it flows to a third well, where it is cleaned by the rays of the sun.

Officers claim this project has been so successful that the Union government has approved it to clean the Ganga. “Former President late APJ Abdul Kalam became a big votary of it and even visited Seechewal village in Jalandhar in 2006 and 2008. Later, then Union Minister for Water Resources Uma Bharti visited the area before approving it to clean the Ganga. Work in the villages of Jaurian Khurd and Chandunangal in Dera Baba Nanak has already started. We expect to cover the other 48 villages before the corridor opens,” said an officer.

Huge centre of attraction

The Intelligence Bureau has ruled out establishing hotels or inns in the vicinity of the Kartarpur corridor, and with less than a month to go before the corridor opens, some knots are still untied, like the issue of the 15,000 people who will stay back at Dera Baba Nanak every day after 5,000 pilgrims cross the corridor.

Officials are working on a 1:3 ratio — for every devotee who will cross over, three people, who will accompany him or her till the ICP, will stay back and make their way into the city.

“This will strain the town and its resources a bit too much. The city has a population of just 10,000 and with 15,000 people arriving every day, the bubble may burst. We are trying to work this out,” said Amarjit Grewal, who is supervising the conduct of ceremonies in the run-up to the opening.

The pilgrims and those accompanying them will be separated 100 metres from the ICP.

Devotees with the requisite documents will be allowed inside the ICP while those accompanying them will have to go for site-seeing trips in Dera Baba Nanak, Amritsar or Kalanaur, a town which is just 10 km away and has historical significance as Mughal Emperor Akbar was enthroned here.

“We are working on a religious tourism circuit which will envisage a tour of nearby places like Gurdaspur, Batala, Qadian, Kalanaur and Keshopur Chambh, one of Asia’s biggest wetlands located near Gurdaspur. This can take some load off Dera Baba Nanak,” added Grewal.

HOW TO REACH CORRIDOR

From Amritsar

The corridor is 46 km away from Amritsar and pilgrims will have to travel via Fatehgarh Churian 

Devotees can travel by taxi, their own vehicle or rail. Dera Baba Nanak’s railway station, barely 2 km away from the corridor, is being upgraded

From Gurdaspur

Devotees from J&K and Himachal Pradesh will have to travel to Gurdaspur before making the 40-km trip to the corridor via Kalanaur

From Batala

Travellers coming from New Delhi may either go directly to Amritsar or may take the Beas-Batala-corridor route. From Batala, the corridor is located at a distance of 35 km

ARRANGEMENTS IN PLACE

Tent City

This temporary structure is being established at the T-point. This will be operational from November 6, three days before the opening. The T-point is located on the Gurdaspur-Dera Baba Nanak road from where the corridor (and the Integrated Check Post) is 2.5 km. The Tent City is at a distance of 38 km from Gurdaspur, 44 km from Amritsar, 33 km from Batala