Kartarpur Corridor: A Short Chronology

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday, 28 November, laid the foundation stone for the Kartarpur corridor.

File image of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib Kartarpur in Pakistan.

(Photo Courtesy: discoversikhism.com)

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday, 28 November, laid the foundation stone for the corridor linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan's Kartarpur – the final resting place of Sikh faith's founder Guru Nanak Dev – to Dera Baba Nanak shrine in India's Gurdaspur district.

Here is the chronology of the events leading up to the much-anticipated corridor that will facilitate a visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims.

1522: The first Gurdwara, Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib, was established by the first Sikh Guru where Guru Nanak Dev is said to have died.

February 1999: The Kartarpur Sahib corridor was proposed by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee when he took a bus ride to Lahore during a peace initiative with Pakistan.

2000: Pakistan agrees to allow Sikh pilgrims from India to visit the shrine visa-free (and without passport) by constructing a bridge from the Indian side of the border to the shrine.

August 2018: Punjab minister Navjot Sidhu attends Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's swearing-in ceremony.

August 2018: Upon his return from Islamabad, Sidhu says that Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa informed him that the Pakistan government would open the Dera Baba Nanak (Kartarpur) corridor on Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary.

22 November: Indian Cabinet approves the Kartarpur corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to the Pakistan border.

26 November: Vice President Venkaiah Naidu lays the foundation stone of the Dera Baba Nanak - Kartarpur Sahib Corridor (up to the International Border) at an event at Mann village of Gurdaspur district of Punjab.

28 November: Prime Minister Imran Khan lays the foundation stone of the 4-km corridor which is expected to be completed by next year.