Digitisation phase II: Govt says only 6 mn homes left in 38 cities

Complete switchover from analogue cable to Digital Addressable Systems has been made mandatory in the country in a phased manner

The latest report of Information and Broadcasting Ministry, just two weeks ahead of the deadline for the second phase of digitisation indicate that our of 16 million TV homes, only over 6 million homes have been left to be digitised.

As per the digitisation programme, complete switchover from analogue cable to Digital Addressable Systems (DAS) has been made mandatory in the country in a phased manner. While the first phase (four Metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai) met with a partial success, the second phase deadline is on March 31, which encompasses 38 cities with population of over a million in 15 states.

As per Ministry figures, out of 16 million homes, 10 million homes have already been digitised. Out of this, 4.2 million homes have installed DTH connections while remaining have opted for digital cable.

Recently, Uday Kumar Varma, secretary, Information and Broadcasting, had also said that over 60 per cent digitisation has been achieved in these cities.

The 38 cities falling under second phase are Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam (AP), Patna (Bihar), Ahmedabad,Rajkot,Surat and Vadodara (Gujarat), Faridabad (Haryana), Srinagar (J&K), Ranchi (Jharkhand), Bangalore and Mysore (Karnataka), Indore, Bhopal and Jabalpur (MP), Navi Mumbai, Aurangabad, Solapur, Kalyan-Dombivali, Pune, Nagpur, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nashik and Thane (Maharashtra), Amritsar and Ludhiana (Punjab), Jaipur and Jodhpur (Rajasthan),  Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu), Agra, Allahabad, Ghaziabad, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut and Varanasi (UP), Howrah (West Bengal) and Chandigarh.