Why a Bathinda amusement park found mention in CM Bhagwant Mann’s speech on deportees

The project? Punjoy, an amusement park spread across 20 acres in Lehra Bega village in Bathinda district. An initiative of seven friends, including two NRIs, the park was set up in May last year, with an investment of approximately Rs 150 crore, after a plan to move to Canada in 2019 fell through due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“In 2019, my children, a boy and a girl, had gone to Australia for higher studies. My friends Sukhpal Singh and Jagjit Singh were settled in Canada along with their children. So my friends and I decided that we would also move to Canada and ask our children to join us there,” says Hardeep Singh, 50, one of the directors of the park.

An electrical engineer, Hardeep is a resident of Burj Hari village in Mansa district and hails from a family of farmers. Hardeep and his friends Resham Singh, Baljinder Singh, Amandeep Singh and Sandeep Singh applied for an investor visa in Canada in 2019. “Collectively, we purchased around 40 acres of land in Calgary. By the end of 2019, we went to Canada with plans to set up a water park there. We were even in touch with a Vancouver-based company,” recalls Hardeep.

“But then came Covid. On March 18, 2020, we returned to India and our plans were put on hold for two years. By 2022, when the government changed in Punjab, we thought of investing here,” says Hardeep.

Their NRI friends Sukhpal and Jagjit, who own a trucking business in Canada, agreed to join hands with them. “We sold that Canada property and started our water park project. The project began in May 2024 and our NRI friends are also in Punjab for the past 5-6 months now,” adds Hardeep.

The seven friends – while Hardeep, Resham and Sukhpal are from Burjhari village, the others hail from Raipur village – met in 2007 over a project of laying an 11kV line when work on the Talwandi Sabo thermal power plant in Mansa district had just started.

“We stayed in touch with each other and we used to go on a holiday together, once a year. As we visited water parks in many parts of the country and even abroad, we had a plan to start this project, but we thought of investing in Canada as people there are fond of spending time at adventurous places on weekends,” says Hardeep.

“Eventually, we invested in Punjab, on land which was otherwise infertile, and we are happy with the response,” he adds, saying that the park has seen a footfall of approximately 2.25 lakh since it opened.

During the winter, the park is rented out as a venue for destination weddings. “In the first season itself, 15 weddings were booked here. We are targeting NRIs as they come to India in winter. There are so many opportunities to earn money here. Why go abroad and start life from scratch?” says Hardeep, listing their expansion plans, which include a 40-room hotel.

The seven friends are now developing a jungle on four acres of land for camping purposes and are in the process of starting biomass factories for making biofuel from paddy stubble at Dhaipai and Raipur villages in Mansa district.

Asked if they plan to move abroad again, Hardeep says no. “Why talk of going abroad now? Many are planning to return to India. It was a phase to send children abroad; now it is time to realise the potential of our homeland. One can gain knowledge from different parts of the world and utilise it in India,” says Hardeep, pointing out that his son, who is pursuing an MBA in Australia, plans to come back and join the business.