Now, pay Rs 50 fee to access Kartarpur corridor ICP

Ravi Dhaliwal

Dera Baba Nanak, November 11

The Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI), agency that controls operations at the Kartarpur corridor, in a much acclaimed gesture has opened the Integrated Check Post (ICP) for general public from November 11.

This has been done to mark the completion of four years of one of the most hallowed projects of Sikhs. A fee of Rs 50 will have to be paid by devotees desirous of visiting the ICP, which is the last point on the Indian side before the corridor begins. All the formalities, including those pertaining to security, immigration and customs are done here.

Earlier, only those devotees were given entry to the ICP who had valid documents and were on their way to the shrine.

The corridor connects the ICP with Darbar Sahib Gurdwara — final resting place of Guru Nanak Dev — across the International Border.

Yesterday, a religious ceremony was held inside the ICP in which officers of the BSF and the Gurdaspur administration and students took part. BSF DIG Shashank Anand was felicitated by officials of the LPAI on the occasion.

This development has been welcomed by devotees and religious leaders.

The ICP was meant to handle 5,000 devotees per day. However, ever since the project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2019, barely 100 to 150 people cross over per day.

This “low-traffic” was attributed to the fact that the Pakistan government had imposed a fee of US $20 on every devotee crossing over to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib. Another factor that kept people away was the mandatory requirement of a passport.

During his stint as Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh had taken up the fee and passport issues with Home Minister Amit Shah, but to no avail. The then Deputy Chief Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa had also taken up the case with the Centre but not much headway could be made.

Sources said the Home Ministry had been averse to giving a passport waiver because “certain compulsions faced by them when it comes to dealing with Pakistan”.