Makli

Punjab's border area was all along better served by Pakistan Television Service and Radio Pakistan and poorly served by Indian broadcasting services. Hence there was a need to strengthen All India Radio and Doordarshan services in the border belt. Sushma Swaraj was the first Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, who realized that the entire border belt in Punjab was shabbily served by All India Radio and Doordarshan. She was surprised to find that Amritsar was served with a local quality radio service of Radio Pakistan Lahore and did not have its own radio outlet to be local in Lahore. She had two options. Either she could open four radio cum TV transmitting centers in Fazilka, Ferozepore, Amritsar and Pathankot.. Or she could order the construction of very tall towers at Fazilka and Amritsar and serve Ferozepore and Pathankot from those two centers. She decided to have just two 1000 foot high towers at Fazilka and Amritsar. The one at Fazilka has just been completed and the one for Amritsar is yet to be built.
The 1000 foot high steel structure may not be as magnificent as the famous "Eiffel Tower of Paris". But it is almost as tall. Before the construction of the tower in Fazilka, the tallest tower in India was the Bombay Doordarshan Tower, which is 984 foot tall. The Bombay tower is supporting the antennas of several Doordarshan channels and accommodates a number of government owned and private radio channels. The Fazilka tower is as much capable. As I hear this tower will carry at least the National Channel of Doordarshan and perhaps one or two Punjab based channels. Its radio outlet will carry several FM channels. Within a sixty mile radius, its transmitters will cover most of Ferozepore district with the exception of Ferozepore City and cantonment area as well as Zeera Tehsil. These areas will be covered by Amritsar station. Fazilka tower will also cover Abohar Tehsil and Muktsar District in Punjab as well as Sri Ganganagar District of Rajasthan. All India Radio Bhatinda is a full fledged FM radio station. Considering the height of the Fazilka tower, a point to point linkage with Bhatinda tower is possible. This means that the Fazilka tower can pick up the signal of Bhatinda and relay it. We congratulate the people of Fazilka for earning this state of the art broadcasting facility and hope it will spread knowledge in the area.