India, Pak technical teams discuss Kartarpur corridor

Ravi Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service
Dera Baba Nanak, August 30

A 105-minute meeting of the Kartarpur corridor technical committee was today held between officials of India and Pakistan at the zero point —the place where the Indian and Pakistani sides of the proposed corridor converge. The meeting was held amid tight security.

This was the first meeting ever since India revoked special status of Jammu and Kashmir, leading to tension between the two neighbours. The project is being established to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. 

As in the past, no official briefed the media on what exactly transpired during the meeting. Sources claimed Pakistan was asked to speed up the construction of a 300-metre bridge on its side. “Initially, Pakistan officials were reluctant to construct the bridge. Citing security reasons, they kept on insisting they would build a causeway instead. When we pointed out that the causeway would lead to flooding of Dera Baba Nanak, they agreed to build the bridge,” said an official.

India has already completed 70 per cent of the work on the 100-metre bridge being built on its side.

Over the past few months, several rounds of meetings have been held to discuss corridor alignment, coordinates and other engineering aspects.

With Kashmiris till last breath

"Today, all of us are standing with the Kashmiris. The Kashmiris are going through a difficult phase… We will stand with them till the last breath." —   Imran Khan, Pak PM