Exclusive: Yogi government gives Republic TV Noida plot for new studio
The land was leased while the Uttar Pradesh assembly election was ongoing, on the day Arnab Goswami interviewed Adityanath in Ayodhya.
It’s peak afternoon in Noida. A kilometre from the expressway, two excavators are digging earth and unloading it on nearby trucks. The work proceeds at a sultry pace. Sector 158 is mostly barren, except for a school and a robotics company in the vicinity. Soon, a third structure will come up in this expanse of empty, government-acquired plots: the studios of Arnab Goswami’s Republic Media Network.
The network, which runs the English news channel Republic TV, Hindi news channel Republic Bharat and Bengali news channel Republic Bangla, is headquartered in Mumbai’s Lower Parel. Republic Bharat operates out of a studio in Noida’s Film City, home to many other news broadcasters.
But the newly acquired plot stands 20 km from Film City. It measures 18,821 sq metres or over four and a half acres. The work began after a puja in September, which Goswami attended. Those in the know say some studio equipment from Mumbai has already been moved to the Film City office.
The plot has been leased to Republic Media Network by the New Okhla Industrial Development Authority for 90 years.
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