NEW DELHI: India's Union Cabinet yesterday approved a proposal to allow universities, technical institutes like the Indian Institutes of Technology and the business management schools like the Indian Institutes of Management to set up their own FM radio stations.

The proposal, as reported by indiantelevision a few months ago, allows such educational organisations as also residential schools to have FM radio stations of their own with a maximum range of five kilometres.

This, the government says, would allow educational institutes to reach out to their closed community in a better fashion and that too at not a very high cost. A typical such FM radio station project, including programming, would cost around Rs. 10,00,000.

Unlike in the privatisation of the FM radio sector where players bid for the licence in some cities of the country --- at times going overboard and bidding too high --- the universities and schools would not be needed to pay a licence fee

According to information and broadcasting minister Sushma Swaraj, here only a fee would have to be paid for the spectrum to the wireless planning co-ordinator. She also said that rules would be framed, but by and large the FM radio stations of educational institutes would be guided by the programming code of pubcaster All India Radio.

When contacted, a senior functionary of Delhi University, with affiliated colleges, spread all over the city, said such FM radio stations would prove to be of immense use to spread various news and information regarding the university, especially during admission and exam time.