: A total of 134 FM stations of All India Radio have been set up during the last five years, even as the government prepares to commence the e-auction for 839 private FM channels.

Of these, 57 are Vividh Bharati which is currently on medium wave, with Prasar Bharati CEO announcing last week that these should be put on FM all over the country. Forty-three centres will get primary channels.

AIR sources told Radioandmusic.com that Drass and Tiesuru in Jammu and Kashmir will get External Services Division programmes in Urdu, while Ludhiana will get FM Gold (for which interim setup has been sanctioned at present and the regular setup proposed in the 12th Plan). Padum in J and K will get Vividh Bharati service in Urdu.

Eleven stations are waiting to be commissioned, while twelve are under implementation or installation. One station in Uttarakhand is under review.

State-wise, Orissa got the maximum of eleven stations, while Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra got ten stations each. Madhya Pradesh got nine stations, while Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhatisgarh, and Gujarat got eight stations each. Bihar, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir got seven stations, while West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Karnataka got six stations each. Assam got four stations.

Punjab got three stations, while Mizoram and Haryana got two each. Meghalaya, Lakshadweep, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli have all got one AIR station.

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