Four towns in Gujarat will get FM radio stations, as the department of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India has received a total 87 proposals from different states, informed the union minister of state for information and broadcasting, Rajyavardhan Rathore in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
Replying to a query from the Rajya Sabha MP, Parimal Nathwani, the minister stated that in last three years, a total 87 proposals have been received to set up FM radio stations in different towns/cities in the country.
The highest - 14 proposals were received from Madhya Pradesh for setting up FM radio stations in different towns and cities of the state.
From Gujarat, four proposals for FM radio stations were received for Amreli, Bhuj, Surendranagar and Dahod. The minister stated that of these four proposals, proposals for setting up 100 Watt FM transmitter in Amreli, Surendranagar and Dahod were approved in 12th Five Year Plan, while work for installation of 5KW FM transmitter at Bhuj is under progress.
In a statement tabled in the parliament, the minister also said that the government received three proposals from Jharkhand to set up FM radio stations at Deoghar, Godda and Santhal Pargana. A scheme of setting up 100 Watt FM transmitter at Godda was approved under 12th Five Year Plan, while FM radio station is operational at Deoghar, but there is no scheme approved for setting up FM transmitter at Santhal Pargana.
Nathwani represents Jharkhand constituency to Rajya Sabha.
On the question about whether the equipments installed at the Doordarshan Kendras have become obsolete and what steps have been taken by the government to replace them with new equipments, the minister responded that setting up FM radio stations and FM transmitters and digitizing studio centres of DD network is a continuous process depending on availability of resources.
He also informed that out of total 67 studio centres of DD Network, total 23 studios are fully digitized, 31 are partially digitized and 13 are analog studio centres.
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