AIR seems set to set up FM radio station in holy city

Amritsar, 18 October, 2013-All India Radio (AIR) seems set to set up its FM radio station in the holy city, Amritsar.In a reply to Right to Information (RTI) application being filed by a local resident, Sandeep Kumar, Prasar Bharati and All India Radio said that they are going to set up their FM station in the border district of Amritsar in the coming months. Through his RTI he had asked the authorities whether the government proposes to set up any FM radio station in Amritsar.Kumar, a lecturer in DAV College of Amritsar said  that radio always fascinated him but due to poor reception of AIR, Jalandhar, here his interest waned. ‘’It was my dream that Amritsar would have its own FM station,’’ said Kumar.He said that he also wrote to a number of union ministers and government officials in this regard but he never received any positive response.

Through his RTI application, he wrote to the authorities that the radio stations of Pakistan are clearly audible to the Indian audience while our own radio stations were barely audible.

He said that the Pakistan government-owned radio station generally broadcast anti-Indian programmes which hurt the sentiments of Indian listeners.Kumar said the FM radio available at 102.7 MHz is not properly audible at Amritsar while the Vividh Bharti, available on FM transmission, is not available in Amritsar district because it’s at a distance of 30 kilometres.

He said that within a month he has received three replies from the Prasar Bharti and the All India Radio (AIR). “Prasar Bharti has stated that the scheme for setting up of a 20 KW FM transmitter (relay) is under implementation”, said Kumar.Kumar said that the Prasar Bharati wrote that the work for setting up the FM station here wasinitiated by the concerned department and the building work is near completion.