More than just a road: What is the Kartarpur corridor?

The Kartarpur corridor connects the Sikh holy shrine of Dera Baba Nanak Sahib, located in Punjab, India, and the holy shrine of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan through a road link.

The 16th century Gurdwara is four kilometres away from International Border. Situated on the banks of river Ravi, the Gurdwara is important for Sikhs as their first guru (spiritual leader) Guru Nanak Dev spent 18 years there.

Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur is built on the historic site where Guru Nanak settled and assembled a Sikh community after his missionary travels.

The present Gurdwara is built on the site where Guru Nanak died, on September 22, 1539.

The distance between Dera Baba Nanak in India and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan is 6.4km.

For decades, Sikh devotees have been demanding that India and Pakistan collaborate to build a corridor linking it with Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district.

Former Indian PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had first suggested the corridor when he took the bus trip to Lahore in 1999.

At a cabinet meeting chaired by PM Narendra Modi on November 22, the corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to Pakistan border was approved.

Modi compared the decision of India and Pakistan to go ahead with the corridor to the fall of the Berlin Wall, saying that the project may help in easing tensions between the two countries.

The corridor created conflict between Punjab Chief Minister (CM) Amarinder Singh and his minister Navjot Singh Sidhu. Sidhu pushed the project after his visit to Pakistan in September for Imran Khan’s swearing in as the country’s Prime Minister (PM).

While Singh rejected Pakistan Foreign Office’s offer to attend the event on November 28 citing continued terrorist attacks in Punjab, Sidhu accepted the invite and went to Lahore on Tuesday.

In August, Sidhu announced that Pakistan Army Chief General Bajwa had told him that Pakistan would open the corridor on Guru Nanak’s 550th birth anniversary in November 2019.