India and Pakistan made “good progress” on the technical aspects of the proposed Kartarpur Corridor at a meeting held here on Friday. India and Pakistan made “good progress” on the technical aspects of the proposed Kartarpur Corridor at a meeting held here on Friday.

India and Pakistan made “good progress” on the technical aspects of the proposed Kartarpur Corridor at a meeting held here on Friday — the first after the government’s decision to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

“It was a positive meeting and good progress has been made regarding timely completion of the corridor project,” an official of the Pakistan Foreign Office told PTI in Lahore. “Both sides also agreed to have another meeting of technical experts to review the progress on the project,” the official said A meeting on the “political aspects” of the project will also be held soon, the Pakistan official said.“In that meeting, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed between the two countries on the corridor project,” he said.

The meeting, held in makeshift tents at Zero Point, was attended by 10-15 officials from each side. These included officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Border Security Force, National Highways Authority of India, Land Ports Authority of India and Punjab government’s irrigation department.

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“The meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere,” NHAI Chief Engineer T S Chahal told PTI. The two sides discussed technical issues including timing of completion of bridge, alignment of roads and other engineering aspects of the proposed crossing points.

Sources said discussions were held on the construction of a temporary service road, as both sides have agreed that there is no time to construct a bridge over the flood plains of Ravi before November 8 — the deadline set for opening the corridor.

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“India has conveyed to Pakistan that we will construct a parallel arrangement of the bridge and service road on our side,” said an NHAI official.

“We have already constructed a part of the bridge on our side. We have urged Pakistan to build a similar bridge on their side, so that the two can then be linked. But this may not be possible before November 8,” said the official.

“So we have made two provisions on our side. We can use a ramp to connect the bridge with the service road; the service road on our side will be linked to the service road constructed by Pakistan. Or we can just use the service road for the entire stretch over the causeway,” said the official.

“Most of the issues have been resolved. Now, the focus is on completing the pending work. India has already completed 75% of the construction work,” the official said.

The corridor will connect Darbar Sahib in Pakistan’s Kartarpur with Dera Baba Nanak shrine in Gurdaspur district and facilitate visa-free movement of Indian Sikh pilgrims, who will have to just obtain a permit to visit Kartarpur Sahib.

— With PTI

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