Indian VP lays foundation stone of Kartarpur Corridor

GURDASPUR: Indian Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu on Monday laid the foundation stone of the Kartarpur Corridor that will link India’s Gurdaspur district with historic Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan.

Indian Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh and central ministers Nitin Gadkari and Harsimrat Kaur Badal were also present in the ceremony.

Earlier, Punjab minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa protested against the presence of names of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) leaders on the foundation stone, Indian media reports said.

Randhawa used tape to black out his own and other Punjab ministers’ names on the foundation stone.

After Pakistan’s initiative to open the Kartarpur Corridor on the 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Baba Guru Nanak next year, India last week had agreed and decided to build the Kartarpur road corridor up to the border with Pakistan.

The Corridor will facilitate Sikh pilgrims to visit the historic gurdwara on the banks of the river Ravi on Pakistani side, with ease.

Pakistan and India both had made an official announcement on November 15 in this regard.

Prime Minister Imran Khan will break the ground for Kartarpur Corridor construction on the Pakistani side on November 28.

The prime minister has invited former Indian cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu to attend the ground breaking ceremony of the corridor.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in a ceremony said that the opening of Kartarpur corridor might lead to a better future between the two countries.

Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara at the bank of Ravi river in Pakistan is about four km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine.

The Sikh community was demanding for a long time to build a corridor linking India’s border district of Gurdaspur to historic gurudwara in Pakistan. The corridor will give Indian pilgrims easy access to the shrine in Kartarpur.

The move to open the corridor between the two countries being seen as a sign of thaw in bilateral relations.