New Delhi says they conveyed willingness to Islamabad to sign pact on Kartarpur corridor on Oct 23.
India on Monday said that New Delhi is ready this week to sign an agreement with Pakistan to open a corridor easing Sikh pilgrims' access to a sacred site.
"In view of the long pending demand of the pilgrims to have visa free access to Gurudwara Kartarpur Sahib and in the interest of operationalisation of the Corridor in time before the 550th Birth Anniversary of Guru Nanak falling on 12 November 2019, Government has today conveyed that we would be ready to sign the Agreement on Kartarpur Sahib Corridor on 23 October 2019," said an Indian Foreign Ministry statement.
He said he hoped Kartarpur will become a major religious hub for the Sikh community, and would boost the local economy.
"Religious Tourism is on the rise in Pakistan, earlier Buddhist monks visited various sites for religious rituals followed by opening of Kartarpur corridor," he added.
The distance between the temple and Gurdaspur is just three kilometers (two miles), but the closure of the Kartarpur crossing forces Sikh pilgrims from India to travel hundreds of kilometers, via Amritsar and Lahore, to reach the site.
