Kartarpur Corridor opens, giving visa-free access to Guru Nanak's Kartarpur Sahib

Who: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who opened the Indian side, and Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, who opened the Pakistani side; a first batch of over 500 Indian pilgrims led by Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Harpreet Singh, including Manmohan Singh, Amarinder Singh, Parkash Singh Badal, Sukhbir Singh Badal and Navjot Singh Sidhu.

What: The corridor links Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district, Punjab, to Gurdwara Darbar Sahib at Kartarpur in Pakistan's Narowal district; reports give its length as between four and seven km. India and Pakistan signed the operating agreement on 24 October 2019, and the corridor opened on 9 November, days before Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary on 12 November. Indian passport holders and Overseas Citizens of India can use it without a visa, and 562 pilgrims crossed on the first day, all returning to India afterwards. The terminal built by the Land Ports Authority of India at Dera Baba Nanak can handle about 5,000 pilgrims a day. Pakistan charges a $20 service fee per pilgrim per visit, which India has repeatedly asked it to drop.

Access has been broken often. The corridor shut in March 2020 for Covid and reopened on 17 November 2021, after about 45,000 pilgrims had used it in its first months. Floods closed it briefly in July 2023. In October 2024 India and Pakistan agreed to extend the agreement for five years; by then over three lakh pilgrims had crossed. On 7 May 2025, in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack and during Operation Sindoor, India suspended the corridor "till further orders". On 31 July 2026 Minister of State Kirti Vardhan Singh told the Lok Sabha that the security situation required it to stay suspended, though Sikh religious groups had asked for an early reopening. Pilgrims can now reach Kartarpur only through Attari-Wagah, with a Pakistani visa.

Where: Dera Baba Nanak, Gurdaspur district, Indian Punjab, and Kartarpur Sahib on the Ravi, Pakistan. Guru Nanak founded Kartarpur at the end of his travels, lived there for about two decades, and died there in September 1539.

Why it mattered: Since Partition in 1947 Indian Sikhs could only see the gurdwara from the embankment near Dera Baba Nanak. The corridor ended 72 years of that distance.