World Radio Day: AIR station project still in limbo after 18 yrs

Even as the country is celebrating World Radio Day today, the All India Radio (AIR) station project for Amritsar is yet to see the light of day.

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Residents of the city rue that successive governments at the Centre as well as in Punjab failed to set up the AIR station even after 18 long years had elapsed. Construction of the Rs 20 crore project was started in 2007 in Gharinda area. The project was conceptualised to counter the false propaganda of Pakistan in the border belt here.

Under the project, a 300 meter (around 1,000 feet) high transmission tower was to be constructed in Gharinda district at Amritsar with a 100-km range, covering parts of Pakistan and India including Jalandhar.

The construction of the tower was completed in six years. After its completion, a team from IIT-Roorkee inspected the tower and found a tilt in its upper portion which could have possibly led to a tragedy. The Prasar Bharati asked the contractor to correct the tilt which he did not.

Later, a comparatively smaller tower with a height of 100 meter was built nearby and the FM-transmitting antenna removed from the high tower was put up on this tower with a much shorter range of just 50 kms which completely defeated the cause for which it was conceptualised. The transmission from this antenna served only some downtown areas of both Lahore and Amritsar and that too very poorly.

In 2020, the around 80 meter long upper portion of the tower was removed and so far, neither the Central Government nor the state government has taken any interest setting up the tower and start the radio station which is imperative for this border belt to counter Pakistan’s anti-India propaganda through their radio channels which are easily available in the border villages.

Harjap Singh Aujla, an engineer who prominently raised the issue, pointed out that Amritsar radio station is the most botched up project in the history of Prasar Bharati and All India Radio, starting from 2007 to date, mired in a colossal 18-year-long delay.

Aujla urged the government to restart the project. “Let the project be started afresh. The Prasar Bharati should go back to the drawing board and get a strong reinforced cement concrete (RCC) tower of 400 meters height designed through a reputed structural designing organisation like IITs in Roorkee, Delhi or Kanpur. After the approval of design, worldwide bids should be invited to construct the concrete tower with an observation-cum-breakfast, lunch and dinner gallery at a height of 300 meters, to be constructed within a specific time-frame. A professional inspection team should also be hired to inspect the work continuously during the period of construction. An office-cum-studio also be designed and constructed. This city due to its size, status and proximity to Lahore, deserves its own full-fledged programme- originating facility. There should also be a small rest-house of the I&B Ministry.