Pakistan and India officials hold technical meeting on Kartarpur corridor modalities
NEW DELHI: India and Pakistan on Tuesday met to discuss the technical aspects of the proposed Kartarpur corridor linking the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan to the Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district of Punjab, officials said.
At the nearly four-hour-long meeting, which took place in makeshift tents at the “Zero point” of the proposed corridor, experts and technicians from both countries discussed the “timeframe for completion of bridge, alignment of roads and engineering aspects of the proposed crossing points”, they said.
Senior officials privy to the meeting said India called for it to address outstanding technical deliberations for the corridor and Pakistan agreed, adding that the project was being implemented with “speed”.
During the meeting, civilians were not allowed access to a point on the Indian side from where they can view the Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib through binoculars.
Various issues were discussed for speedy completion of the proposed project.
The Pakistani team included 8-10 delegates from the foreign ministry, the religion and the federal works departments, while the 12-member Indian team comprised officials from the Land Ports Authority of India, the National Highways Authority of India, the Centre Public Work Department and the Border Security Force.
In November 2018, India and Pakistan had agreed to set up a border crossing linking the Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, the final resting place of Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak, to Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district. The first meeting to finalise the corridor took place on the Indian side on March 14.