I&B asks 19 states to allot free land for AIR FM Stations

NEW DELHI: Denying it was attempting to augment its All India Radio?s FM channels before the auction of the Phase III for private FM Radio, the Government today said an amount of Rs 1.42 billion had been sanctioned for AIR FM expansion under the Eleventh Plan.

New transmitters of various capacities were being installed in 130 places throughout the country, including 100 relay transmitters of 100 Watt. In addition, the old transmitters at 34 places were being replaced by new FM transmitters.

 
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting S Jagathrakshakan admitted in Parliament that state government had been asked to allocate land free of cost to AIR for setting up the AIR FM channels.

He said of the 313 cities for which Phase III had been approved, AIR already had FM channels in 153 cities including those in the pipeline. However, it does not have any AIR FM transmitters in the remaining 160 cities, though 50 of these cities will get relay transmitters in the 11th Plan.

Of these 160 cities, land is required at 153 from the state government, and letters had been written to the state governments of 19 states to allocate the land free of cost, the Minister added.

All the 160 cities will have studios with production facilities and a proposal is being framed for inclusion under the 12th Plan.