Government move to reduce height of AIR tower draws flak

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 24

The Union government’s decision to cut down height of the All India Radio (AIR) tower at Gharinda has hurt sentiments of residents of the district.

Executive members of the city-based NGO Amritsar Vikas Manch (AVM), Kulwant Singh Ankhi and Harjap Singh Aujla, said during a visit to the tower at Gharinda they came to know that officials were working on scaling down its height from 300 metre to 100 metre.

They said in response to a correspondence, the then Deputy Director (Planning), Parsar Bharti, New Delhi, vide letter No. 8/21/2010-D(Plg.)/514, dated February 26, 2015, stated that a scheme for setting up of the 20 KW FM at Amritsar was under implementation.

The civil and electrical works of transmitter building had already been completed under the scheme. Erection of 300 metre tower was complete up to 280 metre. Further, the work was held up and preparations were on for mounting of the FM antenna. Now, they said, workers were engaged in reducing the height of the tower. They fear that it would not bring the desired results.

“It will reduce the coverage area of the radio transmission,” they added. The tower was proposed by the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during his term.”

The high-power radio station is near the international border (IB) with Pakistan at Gharinda village, near Amritsar. The tower of Amritsar radio station with 70 to 80 miles (110-130 km) coverage area was installed to counter Lahore radio, which has a deep penetration in the Indian territory along the international border.

The transmission from the Amritsar radio station will cover Sialkot and Gujranwala along with Lahore in Pakistan.

“People in Pakistan will be able to hear programmes from Amritsar radio station due to digital terrestrial transmitters, which will make broadcastings easier,” added AVM members. They said Rs 20 crore was spent on building and infrastructure of the station. The AIR in Amritsar was still a distant dream as there was nobody to push for its case, they added.

Before 1947, Amritsar was covered by the first grade broadcasting service of All India Radio, Lahore. On August 15, 1947, AIR Lahore became Radio Pakistan, Lahore. It turned into a hostile station.