Pakistan replaces 2 damaged domes of Kartarpur gurdwara

Pakistan has said that it's replaced the two domes of Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib which were damaged because of a thunderstorm and high-speed wind on Saturday evening. The domes were recently built and placed at the perimeter of the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara.

Due to the strong wind, as well as heavy rain showers within the Punjab province, a minimum of two domes at Darbar Sahib Kartarpur fell off, officials said. Pictures of the fallen domes had been widely shared on social media.

No injury was reported as a result of the domes falloff, officials added.

Pakistan's Minister of Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry tweeted that the domes had been replaced and repaired within hours of the incident. He added that the Religious Affairs Minister Noor-ul Haq Qadri has also started an inquiry into the standard of the work done at the Gurdwara.

The Pakistan Army's Frontier Works Organization (FWO) was the main contractor at the project, and it had been assigned the task for immediate replacement of the damaged domes.

The Indian government had asked Pakistan on Sunday to repair the domes urgently. "India has concerned the difficulty of the collapse of domes of Gurdwara Darbar Sahib with Pakistan. it's been highlighted that the damage to the structure of the holy Gurdwara has caused great consternation to the members of the Sikh community," people acquainted with the matter had said.

The domes, which were decorative and made from fibreglass, were restored by a team of experts who worked throughout Saturday night. The restored domes are manufactured from fibreglass, but Pakistani officials have said that there are plans to exchange them with concrete domes within the second phase of the restoration work.

Pilgrimage to the Gurdwara through the Kartarpur Corridor, which started in November 2019, was suspended on March 15 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.