Over 1,10,670 Indians and OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) card holders have visited Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan using the Kartarpur cross-border corridor, the government said on Friday.
A corridor connecting Dera Baba Sahib in India's Gurdaspur to a gurdwara in Pakistan's Kartarpur was opened in November 2019 in a historic people-to-people initiative.
"Since its inauguration on November 9, 2019, more than 1,10,670 Indians and OCI card holders have used the Kartarpur Corridor to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur," External Affairs Minister V Muraleedharan said in Lok Sabha in writing. Answer the question.
Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara is located in Pakistan's Narowal district across the Ravi River, about four km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine.
It is the final resting place of the founder of the Sikh faith, Guru Nanak Dev, who spent the last 18 years of his life in Kartarpur.
Muraleedharan said that representations have been taken to visit the Gurudwara Darbar Sahib using the passport-free corridor. However, he added that a bilateral agreement signed between India and Pakistan in October 2019 mandates that pilgrims travel with valid passports.
The minister said that India has been consistently urging Pakistan not to collect any fees or charges from those who visit the Gurudwara through the corridor in deference to the wishes of the pilgrims.
"However, Pakistan continues to collect $20 per person for each visit," he said.
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