Over 100 people stranded as floodwaters submerge Kartarpur Corridor in Pakistan

More than 100 people, mostly staff members, were stranded as floodwaters from the Ravi River inundated the Kartarpur Corridor, including Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, in Narowal district of Pakistan’s Punjab province, officials said Wednesday (August 27, 2025).

“The entire Kartarpur Corridor complex, including Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, has been submerged by high floodwater,” Saifullah Khokar, head of the Kartarpur Corridor Project Management Unit, told PTI. 

Also Read | Kartarpur Corridor: A pilgrim corridor across a bleak landscape

He said the trapped people, mostly staff members of the Kartarpur Project Management Unit, were being rescued by boats and a helicopter.

Images and videos circulating on social media show the revered Sikh shrine surrounded by floodwaters.

The Pakistani government opened the Kartarpur Corridor in November 2019, which is around 4.1 kilometres from the Pakistan-India border.

The corridor links Pakistan’s Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, where the founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev, lived and died at the start of the 16th century, to the Dera Baba Nanak in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district. The 4 k.m.-long corridor provides visa-free access to Indian pilgrims to visit Gurdwara Darbar Sahib.

According to Narowal Deputy Commissioner Hasan Raza, hundreds of residents have also been evacuated from flooded areas after India released water into the Ravi, causing the river to swell beyond capacity.

The Ravi River, which can hold 150,000 cusecs, was flowing at 155,000 cusecs at Kot Nain in Shakargarh tehsil, he added.

On Sunday, India communicated flood warnings to Pakistan through diplomatic channels on “humanitarian grounds”.

A day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, India took a series of punitive measures against Pakistan that included putting the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in “abeyance”. Usually, flood alerts are shared through the Indus Water Commission.

Thousands of acres of farmland have been submerged, damaging rice crops and animal fodder, officials said.

Mr. Raza stated that heavy rains over the past 24 hours and overflow from drains in Auj, Bayan and Dek further worsened the situation, inundating villages and crop fields, forcing people to migrate to safer places.

Meanwhile, authorities have warned of a high flood in the River Ravi at Shahdara on Wednesday night as Punjab is facing an “exceptionally high” risk of flooding due to heavy rains and the water released by India from the dams, Geo News reported.

At Shahdara in Lahore, the river is currently flowing at 72,900 cusecs, putting low-lying areas, including Shahdara, Park View and Motorway-2 at risk of flooding.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired an emergency meeting on Wednesday (August 27) to review the situation. He directed authorities to improve early warning systems to ensure timely alerts.

The provincial government called in army troops earlier in the day to help rescue people from already flooded areas in Punjab, and for relief and evacuation efforts.

Over 250,000 people have been evacuated from flood-prone areas to safer places across Punjab amid rising water levels in almost all eastern rivers.