New Delhi: All India Radio FM channels will cover about 60 percent population of the country after completion of the 12th plan schemes.

At present, AIR FM coverage is about 32.5 percent of the area and about 45.00 percent of the total population of the country.

To supplement efforts of AIR, the Government had issued guidelines on 25 July 2011 on “Expansion of FM Radio Broadcasting Services through Private Agencies (Phase-III)” to cover cities having population more than one lakh and otherwise uncovered by private FM services from adjacent city.

Eleven cities in Border Areas of J&K and NE States have been included irrespective of population criterion. The auction of first batch of private Radio FM phase III was completed on 9 September this year.

Answering a question, Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore told Parliament that there is no approved scheme for providing FM broadcast to Tamil areas in North & East Sri Lanka.