The All India Radio and Doordarshan centre in Berhampur. Picture by Gopal Krishna Reddy

Berhampur, March 9: A high-power transmission centre of Doordarshan is on the verge of closure here.

“The centre is about to be shut down as the number of customers using antenna to receive the programmes of DD-1, DD-2 and DD-6 is very few and one can receive the signals through direct-to-home (DTH) and cable network. So, the closure would be done in a phased manner,” said assistant engineer of Doordarshan Kendra Ramesh Chandra Bhoi.

Now, Prasar Bharati is insisting on the use of DTH and the process is on, he said.

Two surveys on the number of antenna users were separately conducted by Prasar Bharati and a private agency recently. “The survey report is confidential and cannot be made public. But, the number of the antenna users is very few,” said Bhoi.

The 100-watt Doordarshan relay centre in Berhampur was launched as a low-power transmission centre in 1988. It became a high-power transmission centre with installation of a one-kilowatt transmitter in 2002. Berhampur Doordarshan relay centre, which launched 26 years ago, was the second oldest centre in the state after Bhubaneswar. But DD centres in Cuttack, Sambalpur and Bhawanipatna, which were launched after Berhampur, are now enjoying better infrastructure than the Doordarshan centre here only because of absence of political patronage,” said convenor of South Odisha Development Council Bhagaban Sahu.

Cuttack, Sambalpur and Bhabanipatna centres are enjoying transmission power of 10 kilowatt (10 times that of the Berhampur centre). Those centres also have studio facilities to facilitate the local artists and popularise regional programmes. There are two 10-kilowatt transmitters at the Sambalpur centre,” he said.

The demand of the local people for upgrade of the Berhampur Doordarshan centre is now in the cold storage of Prasar Bharati, he said.

The Berhampur high-power transmission centre looks after the maintenance of 11 low-power transmission centres in five districts — Paralakhemundi and Mohana in Gajapati district, Ghumsar Udayagiri, Baliguda and Phulbani in Kandhamal district, Bhanja Nagar, Kabisurya Nagar and Chikiti in Ganjam district, Banpur in Khurda district and Khandapada and Raja Narayanpur in Nayagarh district.