India pushes for Kartarpur talks with Pakistan next month

New Delhi: Despite the frost in Indo-Pak ties, the Modi government is moving fast on the Kartarpur corridor issue. India has now proposed to Pakistan to hold the second round of meeting on the modalities to operationalise the Kartarpur corridor between July 11 to 14 at the Attari-Wagah border in Pakistan.

Sources on Saturday said, “The meeting would discuss the draft agreement on the modalities for movement of Pilgrims along the Kartarpur corridor and resolve outstanding technical  issues related to alignment and infrastructure along the corridor. So far three rounds of technical level discussions have been held at the experts’ level to try and finalise the alignment, crossing point and infrastructure along the corridor.

Sources said that following the decision taken by the Cabinet on November 22, 2018, India is expeditiously building the requisite infrastructure, including a four-lane highway and a state of art passenger terminal for the corridor. More than 45 per cent of work on the Indian side has been completed. It is targeted to complete the road by end September and the pilgrim terminal by end October, in time to operationalise the Kartarpur corridor during the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak in November.

India wants to ensure that pilgrims can visit the holy Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib “easily and smoothly.”