Five months after India and Pakistan sealed the borders to curb the spread of Covid-19, a team of 10 Pakistani engineers will cross over to India on Thursday to discuss the construction of a bridge in the Kartarpur Corridor.
They will meet officials of Border Security Force (BSF), National Highways of India (NHAI) and Land Port Authority of India (LPAI) at Dera Baba Nanak town in Gurdaspur district.
According to official sources, the engineers will discuss the construction of a bridge on a low-lying stretch near the border on the Pakistan side and conduct a survey of the portion of the bridge built on the Indian side.
“The standard operating procedure (SOP) on preventive measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus will be observed during the meeting,” a senior BSF official said.
The 420-metre bridge was to be constructed under the Kartarpur Corridor project last year. India built the 100-metre stretch of the bridge in its territory before the corridor’s inauguration last year, but Pakistan had expressed its inability to construct the 320-metre portion in the stipulated time but promised to complete the construction in the coming days. The construction of bridge was necessitated as the low-lying area of the border gets inundated when the Ravi river is in spate every year. Pakistan had built a causeway on the low-lying stretch as a temporary measure.
On Wednesday, the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) urged the Indian government to reopen the Kartarpur Corridor for Sikh devotees on the occasion of Guru Nanak’s Jyoti Jot Diwas (the day of immersion in eternal light) on September 20. The event holds significance as the gurdwara is the resting place of Guru Nanak Dev.
