New radio channel for listeners of India, Bangladesh

All India Radio will launch a new channel “Akashvani Maitree” on Tuesday providing a common platform for participatory content creation for listeners in India and Bangladesh, reviving India's outreach to its eastern neighbour through the airwaves first established during the Bangladesh Liberation War.

 The special Bangla language service channel, to be launched by President Pranab Mukherjee at a function, is going to be a maiden venture of AIR which aims at blending of content from both India and Bangladesh transcending the political boundary from the fields of art, culture, literature, music, sports and shared socio-economic issues.

Maitree channel shall also source its content from Bangladesh Betar, official sources told The Daily Star here yesterday. 

The Bangladesh cultural affairs minister is expected to be present when Mukherjee launches the new channel at Kolkata's cultural landmark Rabindra Sadan.

The concept of the channel emanates from a decision taken during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Dhaka in June last year, regarding exploring possibilities of content-sharing among the broadcast organisations of the two countries for further strengthening close cultural, economic, political and emotional bonding between the two neighbours.