All India Radio announces new hub for its Nepali service

(Photo: All India Radio Kurseong - Facebook)

An All India Radio station in the far north of the country is to become the hub for the broadcaster's Nepali service from 1 April.

The public broadcaster Prasar Bharati announced that AIR Kurseong would be the content and transmission hub for all broadcasting in the Nepali language on its external service. Until now the Nepali service has originated in New Delhi.

Kurseong is a hill town in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal state, close to Nepal's eastern border.

Welcoming the announcement, Darjeeling MP Raju Bista said: "With this, our local talents, artistes, musicians, singers, lyricists, writers, dramatists, news readers, news producers, radio content creators will greatly benefit. Kurseong will become the heart of Nepali language radio broadcasting in India."

He expressed the hope that Kurseong would soon also become the hub for Nepali language services on the public television broadcaster, Doordarshan.