``At present our programmes, dependent on Doordarshan I (DDI), are cancelled or shifted to other channels during cricket matches or national emergencies,'' says Balchitravani director S B Chandekar, explaining the need for the independent broadcast system, estimated to cost Rs 105 crore.

The necessity for such a network has been mentioned in the annual report of the State Institute of Education Technology's Balchitravani, which says that ``the commitment of Doordarshan to provide education, information and enrichment is slowly being shadowed by a change of thrust more on to entertainment... Doordarshan is becoming more and more reluctant to provide telecast slots of sufficient duration, at an appropriate timing, suitable to be accommodated in school timetables.''

At present DDI broadcasts Balchitravani programmes for half-an-hour five mornings a week, which is an ``insufficient and inconvenient broadcast time, since it does not conform with school timings,'' says Chandekar. The project will probably take off only if the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) agrees to fund it completely, since the financial burden is too heavy to be borne by the State Government,'' says Chandekar. If accepted, the transmission network will be operational within five years. Informal discussions for co-ordination with the Education To Home Research Laboratory (ETH) Pune, and the Educational Media Research Centre (EMRC) have begun, informs Chandekar.

A 30-episode series on Cosmology and Astronomy, with Dr Jayant Narlikar, director, Inter-university Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) the content expert, has been currently under production at Balchitravani.