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A worker climbs a ladder at the flooded zero-line fence near the India-Pakistan border at Kartarpur Pass near Dera Baba Nanak. (Photo: Narinder Nano/AFP)
The Gurdaspur administration closed the Kartarpur corridor for three days on July 20, which has now been extended for another two days as a safety measure.
The Gurdaspur administration in Punjab has extended the suspension of the Kartarpur pilgrimage for another two days. The religious pass – a visa-free border crossing linking Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur and Gurdwara Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur – is expected to reopen on July 25.
The local administration held a meeting with National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), Border Security Force (BSF) and Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI) near the ‘zero line’ at Dera Baba Nanak. The Kartarpur Pass was closed on Thursday (20 July) for three days due to rising water levels in the Ravi River as 2.60 lakh koz of water was released into the Ujh River in Jammu on Wednesday (19 July).
But with more water expected to flow into the river in the next two to three days, there is a high chance of a flood. “With the threat of flooding looming large, we have suspended the elitra. The situation is not at all conducive to travel. We are monitoring the situation at regular intervals,” said an official.
The fields near the pass are flooded but the residential areas and the pass building are safe. Earlier, water had reached the periphery but was prevented by a temporary dam from entering the main building.
Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Pakistan is the final resting place of the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev. Authorities prevented those who came to pray at the historic gurdwara on July 20 from traveling to the Sikh shrine.
Kartarpur Pass was opened in 2019 on the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev. On 8 November 2019, a day before the inauguration of the pass by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ‘tent city’, which was 4.5 kilometers from the pass, was to accommodate visitors from India and foreign countries, was swept away by floods. However, the rains disrupted the plan, and the tent city turned into a ghost town.
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