Floodwater enters AIR Dibrugarh station, operations shifted to emergency studio

Dibrugarh (Assam), June 25 (PTI): Floodwaters have entered the studios of All India Radio (AIR) station in Assam's Dibrugarh, forcing authorities to suspend all broadcast-related services from there on Thursday, an official said.

The programmes are being broadcast from an emergency studio located at Lepetkata, 18 km away from the town, said AIR station Programme Head Lohit Deka.

Following incessant rain in Dibrugarh town since Tuesday, the AIR office-cum-studio premises and residential campus are under knee-deep water, he added.

The district authorities have also closed the Convoy Road, where the station is located, for public following the increase in water level.

The AIR Dibrugarh is a strategically important radio station in eastern India as the facility is near the Sino-India and Indo-Myanmar border.

"The programmes were conducted (from the Dibrugarh studio) till last night, but (electric) sparks were witnessed in the studios this morning. So, engineers and broadcasting staff shifted the operations to Lepetkata station, which is basically a transmission complex, but it also has an emergency studio," Deka said.

When the operations were being shifted to Lepetkata, the transmission was not stopped as arrangements were made to relay the broadcast through AIR Guwahati centre from 5.30 am to 7.30 am, he said.

"All the 70 plus employees did their best to continue with the transmission even at this difficult time, Deka said.

The transmission system of the studios has now been restored after damaged electrical connections were repaired, he said. "But the studios are not being used as the staff members cannot go there due to the floodwaters.

Established on February 15, 1968, the AIR Dibrugarh has the most powerful transmitter in the entire northeastern region, station's Director Engineer Rajesh Arjun Beldore said. The AIR Dibrugarh broadcasts programmes in 12 languages, including nine dialects in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, he said.