DD TO REACH UNCOVERED AREAS THROUGH
KU BAND
PARLIAMENTARY
CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE OF I&B MINISTRY MEETS
Doordarshan is setting
up a KU Band Transmission Project at a cost of Rs. 638 crores
to cover the remaining 10 per cent of population which at present
is unable to get DD transmission due to the lack of reach of the
terrestrial system. To begin with, the project would have 20 channels
uplinked from Delhi. In a year’s time this is likely to be extended
to 60 channels. All the channels would be Free to Air channels.
The Minister
of Information & Broadcasting, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad informed
the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry,
here today that 20 lakh homes in rural, remote, inaccessible mountaineous
regions and border areas would be covered by the DD by providing
Cable Head Ends and Set Top Boxes. He said, the KU Band transmission
will be the most cost effective option for extending coverage
to the uncovered areas. As compared to Rs. 638 crores on KU Band
Project, the coverage through the terrestrial method would have
required capital investment of Rs. 3456 crores and recurring expenditure
of Rs. 519 crores annually. Doordarshan is hiring 4 satellite
transponders for the purpose, he said.
Shri Prasad informed
Members that apart from the KU Band extension, DD is extending
coverage to 160 uncovered villages in the 8 States of the North
East by establishing Cable Head Ends. The CHEs are set up by Doordarshan
to downlink the TV signals in the village. The cabling from CHE
to the households is also done by DD. The entire cost is borne
by DD. However, the system is handed over to the local panchayats
for its day-to-day running and maintenance with the technical
assistance from DD staff. Shri Prasad said the system has been
operationalized in 44 villages and the work is nearing completion
in another 43 villages. The target is to cover 16,000 households
at a cost of Rs. 7.15 crores.
Shri Lalhmingliana,
MP from Mizoram appreciated the initiative taken by the Information
& Broadcasting Ministry to reach the remote and inaccessible
areas. He said, this would help the people in these areas to view
Indian TV programmes rather than being forced to watch programmes
from Bangladesh and Myanmar. Shri A. R. Shaheen said, the step
taken by DD would help end the alienation of the people, which
is bred by the communication gap. He also stressed the need for
improvement in the content also. The Members also appreciated
the improvement in the quality of DD News and also its coverage
of Iraq War, which provided the Indian perspective to the events
rather than depending on the coverage dished out by the foreign
news channels and agencies. Doordarshan telecast of the World
Cup Cricket also attracted praise. The Minister informed that
over one crore people watched the World Cup final on Doordarshan.
Those who attended
included S/Shri Balram Singh Yadav, Abdul Rashid Shaheen, Gandhi
Azad, Balkavi Bairagi, Vijay J. Darda, Kartar Singh Duggal, Ajay
Maroo, Lalhmingliana, Dr. Ramanaidu Daggubati and Smt. Shabana
Azami.
