Larger 11th plan allocation for AIR, TV

Kolkata, Jan 7. (PTI): About Rs 8,000 crore has been tentatively earmarked for both the upgradation and expansion of All India Radio and Doordarshan inthe 11th plan, AIR Director-General Brijeshwar Singh said here on Saturday."Though the planned allocation is yet to be finalised, nearly Rs 8,000 crorehas been tentatively earmarked for both the AIR and DD," Singh toldreporters while touching upon some of the development programmes of'Akashvani' in the next five years.The schemes that AIR will take up, include the commercial start of thedigital radio programmes, setting up of 18 new FM stations in the next fiveyears, including three in West Bengal to cater to the interests ofNorth-East areas, besides upgradation of the existing FM stations.Singh said, there was at present 38 per cent FM coverage in the country byboth AIR and private channels, which would be augmented to 80 per cent inthe next five years.Focussing upgradation of the FM channels under the 'Rainbow India' schemes,the AIR D-G said plans were afoot to set up one such station atop Rajmahalhills to cover large parts of north Bengal and Bihar, one at a place nearAsansol and Bardhaman to reach its network throughout central part andanother on Susunia hills in Bankura district of West Bengal.In order to widen its coverage in the sports arena, he said AIR would go forlive digital coverage of the next World Cup Cricket in West Indies and thenational games in Guwahati next month.The AIR DG said, Akashvani had seen tremendous growth in the past 15 yearswith one of the largest networks of SW, MW, FM and DTH transmission in theworld.Earlier, Singh announced the winners of Akashvani's prestigious annualin-house awards for technical excellence for 2005 in the presence singerRamkumar Chattopadhyay, danseuse Amala Shankar, singer Gobinda GopalMukhopadhyay and lyricist Abhijit Bandopadhay.The awards would be formally given by Information and Broadcasting MinisterP R Dasmunshi at a function here tomorrow. Dasmunshi would also releasearchival music of Dilip Kumar Roy and Hemanta Mukherjee.Singh said that AIR was busy preparing a commemorial album of Sachin DebBarman. These would be available as MP3 and downloadable files.

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