KOHAT: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government’s project to establish an FM radio station in Kohat has hit snags due to unavailability of a suitable place.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa FM stations project director Zabta Khan told this correspondent that the PC-I of the project was ready and preliminary grant had been sanctioned for it in the budget 2015-16. It was planned to start functioning by 2017 and complete grant would likely be included in the budget 2016-17, he added.

Ansarullah Khan, deputy director of the information department, said to a question that there already existed an FM radio station in Kohat, but it was working under the federal government and the provincial government could not get due publicity in its programmes.

Unavailability of proper space cited as reason for delay

Therefore, the PTI-led government had decided to launch FM stations of its own.

The Peshawar and Mardan stations have already been commissioned, while the others would be established in Kohat, Swat and Abbottabad.

He said that due to the Pemra-related issues the project had been handed over to the ISPR for its establishment, but it would be owned and operated by the information department of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

When contacted, assistant director of the regional information department, Kohat, Irshad Mohammad Afridi, said that the ISPR officials had visited Kohat and rejected the proposal to erect the 300 feet high tower on the roof of the information department.

“They said that a minimum of 80 sq ft space was required for the tower whereas the available roof was hardly 47 sq ft,” Mr Afridi said. He said that the information department had requested the secretary local government to allocate two-kanal land for the establishment of the FM station and its tower and the reply had been awaited in this regard.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2016