MUMBAI: The Central government is planning to establish an HD TV studio in Chennai at a cost of Rs 15 crore which will be commissioned in 2017-18, union minister Venkaiah Naidu has said. About upgrading facilities at Doordarshan Kendra in Chennai, Naidu said 245 studio high-definition cameras and 254 field cameras had been procured for beefing up the infrastructure.

The information and broadcasting minister reviewed the performance of the Doordarshan Kendra and All India Radio in Chennai. Referring to increase in community radio subsidy to 75% across India as reported by www.indiantelevision.com in December 2016, he said NGOs and universities would be encouraged to set up community radios and they also could receive subsidy.

Community radio was an empowering as well as useful tool to cater to the people in local dialect, he said, adding such radio broadcasts were of "immediate" relevance to the community.

About enhancing the services of public broadcasters at par with private ones, Naidu said he had directed officials to produce quality programmes to compete with private FM channels.

Public broadcasting was an essential service and, owing to that, the prime minister Narendra Modi chose AIR and Doordarshan for his 'Mann ki baat programme', he said.

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