Neglected for 70 years, Dera Baba Nanak sees ray of hope in corridor

Once the corridor gets completed, the daily footfall of visitors to the town is likely to be in thousands. The pilgrims who come to the Golden Temple will also visit Kartarpur.

PERNEET SINGH BEDI, Dera Baba Nanak municipal council president

GURDASPUR: Dera Baba Nanak — the last resting place of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism— is expected to see a spurt in economic activity after the announcement of the Kartarpur corridor.

Located less than 2km from the International Border and 7km from Kartarpur gurdwara, the town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district also has two historic gurudwaras — Gurdwara Darbar Sahib (also by the same name as the Kartarpur shrine) and Gurdwara Chohla Sahib.

“Residents of surrounding villages prefer to visit Batala and Fatehgarh Churian towns for shopping. This affected the business here. With the announcement of the corridor, local traders are seeing a hope of revival,” said Gurkirpal Singh, a local resident.

Dera Baba Nanak municipal council president Perneet Singh Bedi said, “It was a large town before Partition. Keeping its population and business activity in mind, the British formed the municipal council in 1885. But after 1947, many started migrating from here to big towns.”

“The 1965 and 1971 Indo-pak wars forced the locals to leave the place. Two floods and militancy added to the woes of those stayed back. This is perhaps the only Punjab town whose population has been going down. Presently, it has 6,400 residents,” he said.

As per the 2001 census, the population of the town was 7,500.

“With the corridor project, those who had migrated from here due to loss of trade may return. Those into real estate have started taking rounds of the revenue office to check the volume of land sale. But landowners are not planning yet to sell real estate as they are expecting price rise in near future,” he said.

“Once the corridor gets completed, the daily footfall of visitors to the town is likely to be in thousands. The pilgrims who come to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple in Amritsar will also visit Kartarpur,” said Bedi.

Punjab cooperation and jail minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, also the local MLA, said, “Once the corridor opens, the hotel industry in the area will also witness a boom. The proposed infrastructural uplift will also make devotees stay here longer. It will help promote religious tourism.”