CHANDIGARH: Around 1.92 lakh devotees from India visited Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan through the Kartarpur Sahib corridor in the past three years, the Rajya Sabha was informed recently. Union Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh gave the information on Thursday in response to a question by AAP MP from Punjab Raghav Chadha.Singh said that in 2021 a total of 10,025 devotees from India visited the gurdwara through the corridor which grew to 86,097 in 2022 and further to 96,555 in 2023. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Kartarpur Sahib corridor on November 9, 2019. After becoming functional, the corridor remained closed during Covid-19 pandemic and reopened after a gap of one-and-a-half years in November 2021. Thus, the corridor, which had received widespread national and international acclaim when it was conceptualised and opened, failed the meet the expectation.Notably, on October 24, 2019, a bilateral agreement was signed between India and Pakistan on Kartarpur Sahib Corridor mandating pilgrims to travel on a valid passport. The Centre had received representations to make the visit passport-free and not to levy service fee of US$20 on devotees. The minister said that India has consistently urged the Pakistan government not to levy any fee or charge the pilgrims, but to no avail.Sources said that both the governments had imposed certain conditions that impede the free movement of pilgrims as Pakistan has imposed a service fee of US$20 per devotee visiting the gurdwara in the neighbouring country and India has made passport mandatory. The passport requirement irked the Sikh clergy.Also, many delegations of Sikhs have requested the central government to take the issue of abolishing the US$20 fee charged by Pakistan with them. Sources further pointed out that Pakistan had finally completed the 420-metre-long bridge at the Kartarpur Corridor zero line after a delay of two-and-a-half years. Earlier, flooding incidents had disrupted devotees’ movements to the Kartarpur Sahib.The 4-km-long Kartarpur corridor links Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan, the final resting place of first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak Dev, with the Dera Baba Nanak in the Gurdaspur district of Punjab in India.
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