Modi hopes Kartarpur corridor will act as bridge between India, Pakistan

A day after his cabinet announced the development of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor from Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district to the  border,  Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday  compared it with the Berlin Wall.

"Had anyone ever thought that the Berlin Wall would fall? May be with the blessings of Guru Nanak Devji, this Kartarpur corridor will not just remain a corridor, but act as a bridge between the peoples of the two countries," PM Modi said at a function to mark the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev at the New Delhi home of Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur.

Kartarpur Sahib is located across Ravi river in Pakistan and is about four km from the Dera Baba Nanak shrine. 

The demand to build a corridor linking India’s border district of Gurdaspur with a historic gurudwara in Pakistan has been a long-pending demand of the Sikh community.

 The corridor, once built, will give Indian pilgrims easy access to the shrine in Kartarpur.

On Friday, Pakistan welcomed the move and conveyed its decision to open the Kartarpur corridor in 2019 for Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while briefing the National Assembly , said that the government decided to open the Kartarpur corridor in 2019.

“It is a step in the right direction and we hope such steps will encourage voice of reason and tranquility on both sides of the border,” Pakistan information and broadcasting minister Fawad Chaudhry tweeted.