No updates from Kabul, Amritsar residents seek repair of defunct AIR tower

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 22

A veteran engineer Harjap Singh Aujla has urged the Union Government to promptly complete the partially-built 1,000 feet high All India Radio (AIR) tower in Gharinda, a border village near here.

In a communiqué to Anurag Thakur, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, he drew his attention to the matter and called upon him to impress upon the Prasar Bharati to complete India’s only 300-metre high FM tower at Gharinda, covering Lahore in Pakistan, and its surrounding areas. The tower is located on the Amritsar-Attari GT Road, which is 13 miles to the west of Amritsar and 23 miles to the east of Lahore.

Long wait

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In a communiqué to Anurag Thakur, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, engineer Harjap Singh Aujla drew his attention to the matter

He called upon him to impress upon the Prasar Bharati to complete India’s only 300-metre high FM tower at Gharinda village, covering Lahore in Pakistan, and its surrounding areas

The tower is located on the Amritsar-Attari GT Road, which is 13 miles to the west of Amritsar and 23 miles to the east of Lahore

After the Taliban takeover, local people were keen on hearing the news updates from Pakistan

After the Taliban takeover, local people were keen on hearing the news updates from Pakistan.

In the letter, he stated that: “Though the work on this tower began in 2006 and it was completed in 2013. Due to a minor tilt in its upper portion, it has not been commissioned till date.”

Last year, the tilted portion was demolished but was never rebuilt. It has been left as an eyesore.

“This is the only Central Government project, which took 15 years to rebuilt and is still nowhere near commissioning,” he rued.

In-charge Aftab Ahmed in New Delhi said due to Covid-19, reconstruction of the AIR tower has been postponed.