Makli

Fazilka is a sleepy sub-divisional headquarter on the Southern tip of Ferozepore district close to the border with Pakistan. Before 1947 partition of Punjab, it used to be a thriving business center, but after the creation of Pakistan, it fell on bad days. The Northern big cities located along the Grand Trunk Road can be easily interlinked for television, telephone and radio services through inter-connecting terrestrial towers, but the Southern areas located in the Bhatinda, Muktsar, Abohar and Fazilka belt are difficult to connect terrestrially with Northern big city grid. Being at the South-Western corner of Punjab, Fazilka's location is quite remote from the point of view of superior quality sound and picture transmission linkage with Northern communication grid. Technically speaking Fazilka deserved a high standing self supporting tower of its own. According to stories published recently in some newspapers including "Ajit" and "The Tribune", Fazilka has finally got a 1000 foot tall self supporting communication tower. The reason I call it Fazilka's Eiffel Tower is that its height is comparable with the height of France's World famous Eiffel Tower. It may not be as beautiful.
Before we discuss the capabilities of this tower, it will be appropriate to share a brief history of broadcasting in Punjab. To the British Colonial rulers, Punjab was a province of extraordinary importance. Under the direct control of the Indian government, a central broadcasting authority called All India Radio was formed in 1936. In addition to the four metropolitan cities of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and New Delhi the fifth and the sixth radio stations were opened in Lahore (Punjab) and Peshawar (North West Frontier Province). Originally all these stations were equipped with one 5 kilowatt medium-wave transmitter each. Between 1941 and 1943, these transmitters were replaced at each station with 10 kilowatt medium-wave transmitters. Theoretically the range of a 5 kilowatt medium-wave transmitter during day light hours is only 30 miles and the fringe area extends another 20 miles. This means that All India Radio Lahore with 5 kilowatts barely reached Amritsar, but after up-gradation to 10 kilowatts, it became local in Amritsar. On August 14, 1947 Pakistan got independence and from 15th of August, Radio Pakistan Lahore became a hostile station. This rang alarm bells in New Delhi and since high powered transmitters were unavailable in India, two low powered 1 kilowatt medium-wave transmitter each were dispatched to Amritsar and Jalandhar. Thus All India Radio Jalandhar-Amritsar came into existence. This arrangement continued for five years. Soon after independence the authorities in Pakistan increased the power of Lahore radio station from 10 kilowatts to 50 kilowatts. In 1953, All India Radio also installed a 50 kilowatt medium-wave transmitter at a place called Goraya, located equidistant from Ludhiana and Jalandhar. This arrangement continued until the nineties. Pakistan added a 100 kilowatt medium-wave transmitter to its existing 50 kilowatt station in Lahore in 1965. India opened a 1 kilowatt medium-wave station at Chandigarh in 1965. Another radio station was to be opened at Amritsar, but due to the 1965 war with Pakistan the idea was shelved. In the meanwhile Radio Pakistan and Pakistan Television Service increased its presence in the border areas with India.
Radio Pakistan slowly and steadily kept opening new radio stations after independence in Rawalpindi, Multan, Bahawalpur, Faisalabad, Mianwali, Islamabad and Sialkot. Pakistan television also dotted entire border area with Indian Punjab with powerful transmitters. India started its second phase of expansion of broadcasting services in Punjab during the nineties. During the nineties both Bhatinda and Patiala got relay centers for Doordarshan and also got FM transmitters of All India Radio. The mother station at Jalandhar was up-graded with two high powered medium-wave transmitters along with a 10 kilowatt FM transmitter. All India Radio Chandigarh was strengthened with a 10 kilowatt high altitude transmitter at Kasauli extending its range up to 110 miles radius.