The President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee launched "Akashvani Maitree" Channel in a function organised at Raj Bhawan, in Kolkata today. The channel is a unique venture of All India Radio and is aimed at strengthening ties between the two neighbours, India and Bangladesh.
Salient Features of AKashvani Maitree
- Channel's uniqueness lies in sharing of content between Bangladesh Betar & Akashvani Maitree
- It will be a common platform for participatory content creation for listeners in India and Bangladesh
- Primary aim of the channel is to strengthen cultural, economic, political & emotional bonding between the two neighbours
- This service is launched from a State-of-the-art Super Power Transmitter of 1000kw, installed at Chinsurah, West Bengal
- Frequency of the channel is 594 kHz / 505 Meter
Duration of the channel will be 16 Hrs per day.
Akashvani Maitree will have two transmissions per day
1st Transmission : 6:00 am to 2:30 pm
2nd Transmission : 3:30 pm to 11:00 pm
Speaking on the occasion, the President said "Akashvani Maitree channel can play a significant role in promoting and preserving the composite Bengali cultural heritage which is the proud inheritance of all Bengali speaking people irrespective of their geographical location."
On the occasion, DG AIR, Shri F. Sheharyar added, "Inspiration to design and launch this channel was mooted from one of the statements made by the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India during his last visit to Dhaka, where he had mentioned that All India Radio and Bangladesh Betar should come out with a joint broadcast venture to create bridges of harmony, amity and mutual cooperation for peace and development in the South Asian Neighbourhood."
Akashvani Maitree will broadcast programmes as reality shows, music & quiz competitions, discussions. Channel will encourage participation from both the countries.
The channel will cover whole of Bangladesh, most of South East Asia and parts of Eastern India. All India Radio has also come up with a multimedia website in Bangla airworldservice.org/bangla . It is easily accessible through live streaming and caters to Bengali Diaspora world over besides listeners in Bangladesh.