Centuries-old Khasa village on Amritsar-Attari road all set to undergo drastic change

Now, the centuries-old Khasa village is all set to undergo another drastic change in its character as a state-of-the-art convention centre and other commercial establishments are coming up here.

It has already acquired the status of a military town due to prominently situated BSF and Army areas here. Tourists, heading towards the Attari border to witness the retreat ceremony in the evening, get a feeling of the military character of the border area from this village.

A tourist Nilanjan Rai, who along with his family from Sikar in Rajasthan came to see the retreat ceremony, said the moment their vehicle entered the stretch where a display board announced the Khasa area, they felt they had really entered a defence area. Men in olive green barricading the route, besides the display of artillery guns on the main road best conveyed its character.

Mahindra Holidays and Resorts entered into a joint venture with city-based SSB Group to set up the largest convention centre in Punjab along with a world-class resort at Khasa. A luxury resort, spread over 90,000 sq feet with 250 rooms, the largest convention centre in the state will be set up under the joint venture. To be raised with an investment of over Rs 460 crore, all these three projects are likely to offer approximately 700 jobs.

Rajan Bedi, managing director, SSB Group, said as per the joint venture, they would set up the largest convention centre in Punjab along with a world-class resort at Khasa.

He said these two projects had tremendous potential to introduce the next level of luxury stay in the city, in general, and Khasa, in particular. He said his company recently opened DMart store for retail shopping adjoining the site of the proposed convention centre. He said spread on 4.5 acres and equipped with a food court, it was the biggest retail store of the company in the district. He said it would draw the tourists for a stopover here.

About the impact of these luxury projects, he said these would boost rural and border tourism in the area. Residents of Khasa would receive maximum benefits in the shape of employment here, he added.

The resort would be an ideal venue to hold destination weddings. A large number of NRIs visit the city every year to meet their relatives, hold weddings of their wards and pay obeisance at the Golden Temple. They would find complete amenities inside the resort.

He said the boundary wall had been raised on the site and once they received all required papers, construction would begin here. Baljit Singh, a resident of the village, said residents of Khasa and surrounding areas had got employment at the store.