LARKANA: Broadcast range of Radio Pakistan Larkana has increased to cover a radius of over 300 kilometres after the installation of high-power 100 kW medium wave transmitter near Chuharpur village on Larkana-Naudero road, said Ali Murad Tanveri, director Larkana station on Friday.

He said that PBC director general Sheeraz Latif accompanied by director programmes Fayyaz Baloch arrived in Larkana a week ago and cut ribbon to inaugurate transmission through the 100kW transmitter which had been made operational at a cost of Rs65 million.

He said that the broadcast range of the transmitter was in a radius of over 300km. The medium wave Larkana could now be tuned in at 1053 kHz from 5.45am to 11am and from 1pm to 11pm, said Mr Tanveri.

100kW medium wave transmitter installed

“Presently, we are receiving feedback even from parts of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Muzaffar­abad), Sibi, Bolan, Bahawalpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sanghar, Thar­parkar,” he said, adding the Lar­kana radio could also be listened to in Ahmedabad and Jaisalmer (India).

DG PBC had also inaugurated Sautul Quran channels in Khairpur and Hyderabad during a recent visit, which had been donated by Saudi government, he said.

Slain premier Benazir Bhutto had inaugurated Radio Station Larkana on Sept 24, 1995, and promised that it would be upgraded soon with the installation of the 100KW medium wave transmitter. But the project hit snags after dissolution of her government.

Over a decade later, three transmitters were finally imported in 2008, one each for Larkana, Hyder­abad and Multan and in July that year Ghulam Murtaza Solangi, then director general of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), reiterated that Larkana would soon get a 100kW transmitter, but once again the project was put on the back burner, said sources in the radio station.

In 2013, the 100kW transmitter sanctioned for Larkana Radio Station was shifted to Turbat and installed there, said the sources.

They said that after the transmitter had been installed both Wapda and Railways authorities raised new obstacles to its early operation.

Wapda delayed the process of sanctioning an independent power line for the transmitter despite having received payments in advance while Railways authorities objected to hanging the line across the tracks, said the sources.

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2017