India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has issued a Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for e-auction of 266 FM Radio channels in 92 cities in the second batch of Private FM Phase III, to be conducted in mid-September.

This batch consists of 227 channels in 69 new cities besides 39 channels in 23 existing cities, which remained unsold in the last round of auctions.

The e-auction of first batch of frequencies, which got over on September 9, 2015, resulted in the sale of 91 channels across 54 cities and also paved the way for migration of 181 Phase II licenses to Phase III.

The first batch comprised vacant channels only in those cities where private FM operators were already present.

The government says that channels in new cities from the second batch will lead to actual geographical expansion of private FM radio.

Out of 69 new cities taken up for auction in the second batch, 20 cities with 80 channels have a population of 300,000 to a million, 38 cities with 114 channels have a population of 100,000 to 300,000 and 11 cities in border areas of Jammu & Kashmir and North Eastern states with population up to 100,000 having 33 channels have also been included.

A pre bid conference will be held on July 11 and the last date for seeking clarifications on NIA is July 14. Clarifications will be given on July 21.

The last date for submission of applications is August 1.

The Pre-Qualification of bidders will be done by September 1 or completion of requisite formalities whichever is later, followed four to five days later by a mock auction.

The main auction will start four days after the mock auction.