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Pak-India technical talks on Kartarpur corridor underway

Pak-India technical talks on Kartarpur corridor underway
March 19, 2019
LAHORE (92 News) – Pakistan and India are holding technical talks on the Karatarpur corridor at Wagah on Tuesday. Sources said that the talks will be held at no man’s land. A 10-mmeber delegation of Pakistani experts will participate in the talks. The talks will focus on the height, width and border gate of the road. A detailed discussion will also be held on the distance and construction of the terminal. The decision to hold meeting of technical experts of Pakistan and India was taken by officials of the two countries in their March 14 meeting held at the Attari border. According to Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Faisal, experts from various fields of construction will participate in the March 19 meeting. Fifty percent of the four-kilometer stretch of the corridor being built by Pakistan has been completed while the stretch between Zero Line to Baba Nanak’s shrine is being built by India. India is building a passenger terminal at Zero Line at an estimated cost of Rs1.9 billion. Officials from the two countries will hold their second meeting to discuss the plan for Kartarpur corridor on April 2 at the Wagah border. It is hoped that the first phase of the corridor will be completed before the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. Meanwhile, China has welcomed the meeting between India and Pakistan to discuss and finalize modalities for the Kartarpur corridor. Beijing hopes relevant progress will help to further ease tensions between India and Pakistan and improve the regional situation, foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said at a press briefing. “India and Pakistan are neighbors that will always live with each other,” Geng said, adding that harmonious relationship between the two countries serves the fundamental interests of both sides and meets the common expectation of the international community. He expressed hope that both sides could continue to demonstrate goodwill, meet each other halfway, properly settle differences through dialogues, improve bilateral relations and jointly safeguard regional peace and stability.