Kartarpur corridor opens
India and Pakistan open a visa-free corridor from Dera Baba Nanak to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur, where Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji spent the last years of life. It opens before Guru Ji's 550th birth anniversary.
Kartarpur lies about 4.7 km from the border, in Pakistan's Narowal district. After Partition, pilgrims could at first cross informally by the Jassar Bridge, which was destroyed in the 1965 war. For decades afterwards, devotees looked across from Dera Baba Nanak through binoculars. The idea of a corridor was raised between Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif in 1999. Foundation stones were laid in November 2018.
The two governments signed an agreement on 24 October 2019 for an initial five years, allowing up to 5,000 Indian pilgrims a day to make same-day visits without a visa. On 9 November 2019 Narendra Modi inaugurated the Indian side at Dera Baba Nanak and Imran Khan the Pakistani side at Kartarpur. Pakistan charged a fee of 20 US dollars, waived for the opening days. Passport rules and booking procedures kept early numbers low.
Travel stopped in March 2020 because of Covid-19, and India reopened its side on 17 November 2021. The agreement was renewed for five more years in October 2024.[Web][Web][Web][Web][Web][Web]