Kapurthala, May 19: The Pushpa Gujral Science city in Kapurthala is a unique example where effort has been made to popularise science by making it simple and enjoyable for the people.

At the Science City, people are made to sit on a Space Shuttle-like vehicle which takes them on a journey that provides some close encounters with celestial bodies. Children and adults present there tend to scream with joy.

Located on the Jalandhar-Kapurthala Road, the science city has much more to offer than this virtual expedition.

Spread over 72 acres, the Pushpa Gujral Science city is the largest in the world and aims to provide edutainment - a combination of education and entertainment.

This city is open round the year and work has been going on at a feverish pitch to build more facilities, add more exhibits and make visit to this place an unforgettable experience.

"The emphasis in the science city is that we bring the children to a level of experimenting with the science and technology subjects and various aspects of science and technology. Now along with the serious science we have made efforts to add entertainment components, so that the family members, who accompany the children and those people who don't have a background in science and technology, they also enjoy the visit to science city, so a fairly component of science based entertainment exists in the science city," said DR. R. S. Khandpur, Director General of Pushpa Gujral Science City.

Dr. V S Sethi, the former director of Terminal Ballistic Research Laboratory, visited the Science City on May 11 (the National Technology Day), said that technology plays a vital role and India was self-reliant in the field of defence and could face internal and external security-related challenges.

"Technology plays a very important role in today's defence requirement. I can tell you one thing that even for India's nuclear program, there are certain technical items, which are not available anywhere in the world. We launched our new programs indigenously designed and developed, which are now being used in our own weapon system," added V. S. Sethi.

"It's a very good experience for me to visit this science city. In the home theatre, I felt I am really on the mountains and in the roller coaster, I felt I am actually riding in it. It was very good experience," said one of the visiting students at the science city.

Besides a giant 100-feet diameter dome theatre, the Pushpa Gujral Science City has a kids' park, laser shows, rocket climber, planetarium and fun science.

Over the years, it has acquired the experience to fabricate scientific exhibits. In fact, 40 per cent of them are in-house creations while 20 per cent are imported.

It's drawing people on occasions such as the Science or the Technology Day and now efforts are on to promote it as a tourist destination. (ANI)