Big FM in Rs 150-cr North India spread

Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group-controlled Adlabs Radio will spend nearly Rs 150 crore on operations in the northern region, comprising Uttar Pradesh, New Delhi, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. The company has plans to set up 20 FM stations in the northern region.

Also, in the offing is FM service in Hissar, which the company plans to launch soon.

Adlabs today launched its FM service, "Big 92.7 FM", in Chandigarh. The Chandigarh Big 92.7 FM is the twelfth station in the Adlab network. In the first phase of its launches, Big 92.7 set up stations in Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Banglore, Mumbai, Jammu, Srinagar, Aligarh, Jhansi and Bikaner.

The second phase of the launch will take Big 92.7 FM to several mini-metros, increasing the total count of stations to 45 and making it the biggest FM network in the country. Speaking to Business Standard, Adlabs COO Tarun Katial said, "The response from the cities where we have launched the station has been very encouraging."

"With an investment of Rs 400 crore, dedicated to transmission equipment, infrastructure and licensing, the proposed network will be the largest," said Katial. Commenting upon the northern region, he added that the investment would be to the tune of Rs 150 crore. He further added that the firm would employ close to 500 people in the northern region.

In northern region, the company is in the process of launching its services in Hissar, Jalandhar, Patiala, Amritsar and other cities.

"The company has plans to create history with its pan-India presence, spanning 45 cities, 1,000 towns and 50,000 villages," he added.