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As government changes, inertia afflicts Media City project in Haryana

Vinod Behl in New Delhi

The Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation's ambitious plan to set up a state-of-the-art Media City on the lines of NOIDA's Film City has come a cropper.

The HSIDC which mooted the idea over four years back, had proposed to build a complex to provide hi-tech infrastructure for producers and directors of TV programmes.

Media City was planned to house production facilities and training institutes for TV personnel like comperes, presenters, newsreaders, commentators, script-writers, make-up men, et al.

Additionally, there was provision for conference halls to serve as venues for regular workshops and seminars on various aspects of TV production. Media City was meant to put the entire production facilities under one roof.

The idea conceived under Bhajan Lal's regime was to cash in on the boom in TV software generation, consequent to the proliferation of satellite TV channels and Doordarshan's stepped up operations. And since TV professionals in Delhi were mainly dependent on TV studios in NOIDA, the HSIDC wanted to give young talented TV professionals an alternative conducive working atmosphere.

The HSIDC had even shortlisted two sites on the Delhi-Guragaon National Highway-8. The likely choice for the Media City was an 18-acre plot, about 10 kilometres from the Indira Gandhi International Airport adjacent to the site of a commercial complex.

The Media City was expected to become operational by 1996. And the HSIDC had kept the options open for leasing out the TV infrastructure to the media professionals. But the change in government in Haryana has put this plan into cold storage.