Kartarpur Sahib — By now a Complete City of Nanak
Kartarpur Sahib — By now a Complete City of Nanak
Tejinder Singh Bedi
@tsinghbedi
The moment of bliss is arriving. November 9 is not far away. The best ever happening in this life-span of mine like that of millions of others like me is almost on the cards. Thanks to an unflinching support of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi ji — this dream of Sat Guru Nanak Dev ji’s countless devout disciples is finally going to come alive with the formal opening of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor as scheduled.
If social media updates including a detailed coverage by BBC, Punjabi is to be believed, as per Atif Majid, the Project Director of this divinely blessed project, the construction work on the same has almost reached its final stages with only finishing touches left to be given before its scheduled inauguration.
(Please visit the wonderful Video shared in public domain by BBC — Punjabi covering all these details, perhaps for the first time. Great share)
Post launch of the augmentation of this project, its development is now being completed in a sprawling complex of 104 acres from just 4 acres available in its pre development state. Out of this 104 acres of land acquired by the Pakistan government, 42 acres is dedicated to the Gurdwara Sahib building area with another landscape of 660 x 660 square yards (equalling 3,64217 lakh Sq feet) earmarked and developed as its integrated huge courtyard.
A mammoth Baradari has also been completed in an L Shape to eventually house a museum to host all the old relics available since the times of Sat Guru Nanak Dev ji (1469–1539) besides a dedicated library; where immediately after its inauguration on November 9th, an exhibition of the same is also going to be organized for the personal viewership of the devout pilgrims.
Its integrated barracks also referred to as the Mehman khana by the project director, have 1000 rooms with arrangements for as many as 1500 persons to stay there in a single day. 50 each of dedicated toilets for the male and female pilgrims have also been constructed along with these 1000 rooms.
The original shrine and place of Sat Guru Nanak Dev ji has been retained as the Diwan-asthaan of Guru Sahib in this old Shahi QIla for paying obeisance to Guru Sahib and Sri Guru Granth Sahib all the 24 hours of the day. All prayers and Ardaas will be solemnized at this Ibabatkhana- Prayer House with the new Gurdwara building planned to be opened for visit by the pilgrims.
The integrated Langar Khana has a place to serve langar to as many as 2500 persons in one go. A 50 meter Sarovar with integrated toilets and change rooms for male as well as female devouts is also ready for being opened concurrently. All logistics like a Jodda Ghar, (where the visitors place their footwear), Lockers with individual keys to keep any valuables, a full fledged Medical Center, Help Desk counters, upkeep teams of all maintenance facilities including non-stop brooming of the premises through brooming machines are also ready for being thrown open to public from the day of the inauguration. Services of tourist guides are also reported to have been arranged to facilitate itenary of the pilgrims at the vast site.
The project site has been developed in a U Shaped design with its Darshani Diyoddi — the entrance side kept completely open towards the border on our — the Indian side so that all the pilgrims travelling by buses or walking on foot can view the Darbar Sahib from a distance itself.
A 26 acre landscape has been earmarked for Gurdwara Sahib’s in house agricultural produce where besides all variety of the vegetation, sarson, orchards of oranges, lemons and guavas have also come up in full bloom for supplies for the langar sewa. This plot has another 36 acre land under development for similar utilizations and thus in all adding up to 104 acres of plot dedicated to Gurdwara Sahib.
All told the Pakistan government is reported to have acquired 800 acres of land for final development of this sacred place including almost a one kilometer long over bridge over the river Raavi and the reception cum screening terminal at the border with 444 acres at the disposal of Gurdwara Sahib.While development of 104 acres of landscape is understood to have been completed so far in the first phase, the second phase will be targeting development of another 120 acres of land for hosting a number of seminar halls, hotels, apartments and commercial complexes as part of its additional logistical supports to increase tourism to the shrine.
All costs and expenses for the Phase I are reported to have been solely borne by the Pakistan government though as per details shared by the project director, the second phase might be opened to donations from the devout disciples of Guru Sahib. Architectural design for the newly constructed complexes, buildings, Gurdwara Sahib is claimed to have been strictly aligned to traditional benchmarks followed for all places of worship by the Sikhs and Hindus sharing tenets of Sikhism for all of the domes, arches, burjs (Tower-Turrets) and the sacred Khanda Sahib, statedly following guidelines of Sikh leaders from either side.
Having started just a year ago, claimed to be the biggest Gurdwara Sahib in the world today, Darbar Sahib’s work carried on non-stop round the clock in three shifts has been completed in just 10 to 11 months from its zero day — the day the first shovel went into the land for its construction. The quantum of pure white marble used for its construction is stated to have tapped each and every marble mine in Pakistan.
As per the brief details shared by the project director, pilgrims for visit post inaugurals will be received at the international borders, ferried in low bed buses to the project sites with due escorts, after verification of the bio metrics of each visitor both on entry (as also on exit on return) though no visa would be necessary as already clarified through various press releases.
For the pilgrims walking in from the Indian borders, sitting as well as resting places have also been developed enroute. Strict security checks will be carried out as at the international airports. Facility of free wheel chair supports for the physically challenged or disabled has also been organized.
As per terms of the present MOU, pilgrims entering for visiting Darbar Sahib without visa through the corridor will have to return to India the same evening though others entering with planned visa can stay longer as approved. All told, arrangements of stay of upto 8000 persons per day is expected to be ready for all such pilgrims from all over the globe including an expected of 2000 to 3000 from within Pakistan. An additional tent-village has also been created to host upto 10,000 visitors a day with a provision for free langar for at least the first ten days, as of now.
One also hopes the issue related to the entry fee gets resolved at the earliest. The Times of India in its leading editorial of Oct 26 has questioned if Can Kartarpur can heal the relations between the two nations.I think it is time for the leading media like the TOI to stay away from such questions as the opening of the corridor can have no positive or negative bearing on the political or economic relations between the two countries, which have root causes completely different from the objectives with which the premiers of both the nations have come thus far to bring Sat Guru Nanak’s last physical divine abode closer to all of His devotees, much later than all of the diplomatic, economic, social relations still existing between the two lost brothers.
The way the augmentation of the shrine and development of the region is claimed to have been achieved, it seems that the entire area has come up as an exclusive City of Nanak and could well be rechristened as ‘Nanak’s City of Kartarpur Sahib” by Pakistan.
(Write up inputs based on Oxford dictionary, my brain, BBC Punjabi interview, TOI Coverages besides others)