Punjab Post Daily Online Newspaper & Print Media
Harjap Singh Aujla
Some projects keep facing inordinate and agonizing delays in execution and for no reason. The prestigious project of All India Radio in Amritsar is one such Government of India Prasar Bharti broadcasting venture, which, even after seven years of its execution, is not yet prepared for its fruition. During the pre-independence days, Lahore and Amritsar, the two most important cities of Punjab were effectively covered by the medium powered service of All India Radio Lahore. Lahore still provides first grade local broadcasting service to its twin city of Amritsar.
After the 1947 division of Punjab, Amritsar the main entry point of displaced humanity, needed a radio station of its own for coordination of the process of settlement of refugees and it got a radio station in 1948. The new radio station was called All India Radio Jullundur – Amritsar. It was broadcasting on 225.6 (Jullundur)and 230.8 meters (Amritsar) in the medium-wave mode. But five years later in 1953 for no rhyme or reason Amritsar’s medium-wave transmitter was shut-down for ever, depriving a vast border area of a well meaning radio service.
In 1963 Sardar Partap Singh Kairon as the Chief Minister of Punjab recommended to the central government the construction of two new radio stations, one each in Amritsar, the financial and industrial capital of Punjab and the second in Chandigarh, the political capital of East Punjab. In 1965, a radio transmitter was dispatched by the Government of India to Amritsar, but during the monsoon season of the same year, an unfortunate war broke out with Pakistan and the transmitter was evacuated to Jalandhar, where it was commissioned later on. The unaffected by war, Chandigarh station was commissioned during 1965-66. At that stage Punjab had three full fledged radio stations located at Jalandhar, Shimla and Chandigarh. The Shimla station, due to difficulty of terrain, was a shortwave station broadcasting in tropical bands (49 to 90 meters).
In the meanwhile, Radio Pakistan Lahore was constantly unleashing anti-India war propaganda. The people of Amritsar kept trying for a radio station to fulfill their own cultural aspirations, but the government was not listening. Nothing happened till 2001. In November of 2001, I met Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, the then union minister of information and broadcasting and forcefully pleaded for the establishment of a radio station in Amritsar, to which she agreed. Subsequently in 2002, plans and technical design for a powerful radio station were prepared for Amritsar.
Funds for the Amritsar radio station were allocated by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in 2007. Work on the construction of a three hundred meter tall (nearly 1000 foot high) steel frame tower at Gharinda commenced in May of 2007. Work has been going on since then at a snail’s pace at Gharinda on the G.T. Road. Now the civil works at the tower are complete, but neither the TV transmitting antenna nor radio transmitting elements have been fully installed on the tower. Two down-linking satellite dishes seemed already functional and one more had its elements scattered for fabrication. These dishes are probably meant for down linking the programming from the mother stations in Mumbai and New Delhi. I saw some transmitting equipment lying on the ground. The interim plans call for the installation of at least two high powered TV transmitters and at least one high powered FM radio transmitter. But such towers, for achieving optimum utility, are designed to handle multiple radio and TV channels. According to my guess, All India Radio Amritsar will relay parts of the Vividh Bharati service, parts of the Urdu Service of All India Radio, parts of FM Rainbow and partly the programming originated from capital stations at Jalandhar and Chandigarh.
As the things stand today, it appears that All India Radio Amritsar will merely be a relay facility, unless the present union government decides to upgrade it with its own studio facilities. At present it appears that A.I.R. Amritsar will not be an originating station like the neighboring stations in Lahore and Jalandhar are. Punjab has radio stations in Patiala and Bathinda too and they are both program originating stations. Both have attached studio complexes. Amritsar as a city is larger than Jalandhar, Chandigarh, Patiala and Bathinda and on daily basis is the most happening place in Punjab. It has a large and prestigious university, a great medical college, several technical institutions, along with several reputed schools and colleges. It is the region’s leading centre of wholesale business in textiles and dry fruits.
Amritsar has Northern India’s busiest rail and road port. It has Punjab’s only fully functional international airport. It is the theatre capital of Punjab. This city also had a rich heritage of music. All these reasons make Amritsar a strong claimant for a full scale radio station with an independent studio facility, to originate at least one local channel. Without its own channel, this city’s immense entertainment, recreational and educational potential shall not be rewarded. Prasar Bharati was ordered to build a radio station in Ludhiana in March 2013 and the radio station along with a makeshift studio complex was inaugurated by the minister on August 16, 2013. It means that if will is there, things can be arranged to unfold expediciously. Another radio station of the same magnitude was planned for Rae Barelli, much later than the Amritsar broadcasting station. Due to Rae Barelli’s important backer, it was commissioned in December 2013, prior to the national parliamentary elections, but the one in Amritsar is still struggling for a completion date. The Amritsar radio station must carry all the national Punjabi news bulletins as well as all the regional Punjabi news bulletins originated from All India Radio Chandigarh. This should be done in addition to the national bulletins in English and Hindi. There should also be a local bulletin in Punjabi to carry the urgent announcements of the municipal corporation, the district administration, the SGPC as well as the timings of important trains and the timings of international and domestic flights from the Amritsar International Airport. Since Amritsar is a happening place, its radio station should have satellite up-linking facility for the other stations to instantly carry its programs. It should have permanent broadband high fidelity direct relaying facility from the sanctum sanctorum of the Golden Temple.
The studio complex of All India Radio should be located in the heart of Amritsar. The studio must have a talk studio, a couple of radio jockey work stations and a music studio equipped with recording equipment with channel separated full orchestra recording. The people of Amritsar should make a vociferous demand for early commissioning of this radio station, which has been denied to them since 1953. I can offer my services for equipping its library of music.
