AIR to re-launch radio channel for Bangladesh

A Bangla radio service, launched in 1971 during the Bangladesh Liberation Movement and discontinued in 2010, will again go on air on June 28. Officials said that once India restarts the service in its new avatar, Akashvani Maitree, it would be a unique broadcast service in which two nations would jointly create content, reports the Indian Express.

 

The Special Bangla Service of All India Radio had been launched in the wake of the Bangladesh Liberation Movement and played a key role during the war, broadcasting Indian news bulletins in Bangladesh. It continued till April 2010, but was discontinued thereafter due to decommissioning of the Super Power Transmitter at Chinsurah.

 

The channel will now be relaunched on June 28 in Kolkata in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

 

Explaining the rationale behind relaunching the service, an official explained, “In view of the important place Bangladesh occupies in India’s foreign policy, it was felt imperative that this dedicated service is strengthened, contemporised and re-launched. Earlier, the radio service ran for 6 hours 30 minutes daily, but the new Akashvani Maitree will run 16 hours a day.”

 

The official added that a state-of-the-art 1,000 KW DrM transmitter has been installed in Chinsurah in Bengal to enable the service to be broadcast across the length and breadth of Bangladesh.