Vice Prez to lay foundation stone for Kartarpur corridor on Nov 26

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu will lay the foundation stone for the construction of Dera Baba Nanak-Kartarpur Sahib road corridor up to international border with Pakistan in Mann village in Gurdaspur on November 26.

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Food Processing Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Punjab Chief Minister Amrinder Singh will be present on the occasion.

To mark Guru Nanak Dev Ji's 550th birth anniversary in 2019, the Indian government decided on November 22, 2018 to build the Kartarpur road corridor up to international border between India and Pakistan as an integrated development project.

The corridor will let Sikh pilgrims visit the iconic Gurudwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur on the banks of river Ravi in Pakistan.

India and Pakistan had announced on November 15, 2018, that they will build corridors on their respective sides to let Sikh pilgrims visit the holy shrine without visa and to help them walk across and come back without having to secure a visa.

"Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu, will lay the foundation stone for the construction of Dera Baba Nanak-Kartarpur Sahib road corridor (up to international border) at a function in village Mann in Gurdaspur district of Punjab on Monday, the 26th of November, 2018," a Road Transport Ministry statement said.

Guru Nanak had assembled the Sikh community at Kartarpur and lived there for 18 years till 1539. The Gurudwara Darbar Sahib is built where he took his last breath.

The Indian side of corridor starts from Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district and extends up to international border between India and Pakistan. The project corridor is to be developed by National Highways Authority of India and will be funded by the Government of India. The project corridor is four-lane with service road and all other appropriate amenities for pilgrims intending to visit Gurudwara Darbar Sahib, Kartarpur in Pakistan.

This corridor will be a historical landmark between India and Pakistan and will also boost tourism as more pilgrims would visit the holy shrine throughout the year between two countries, the statement said.