BBC to make the election journey with ‘India Election Train’

MUMBAI

: BBC is pumping up its election coverage in India. An army of reporters from BBC World Service English, BBC Hindi, BBC Urdu, BBC Tamil, BBC Bengali, BBC Somali, BBC Swahili, BBC World News television, Arabic TV, Persian TV and BBC.Com/news will board a train to broadcast stories to the world – across TV, radio and online.

The multi-platform, multi-lingual initiative – India Election Train – will cover a diverse range of news from across India during the run-up to the country’s general election.

BBC has worked with Indian Railways to design a time table for the project and the train will take a route from Dehli-Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Hyderabad-Bhubaneshwar-Kolkata-Patna-Allahabad-Dehli, with the team visiting major population centres as well as contrasting provincial towns and rural areas.

Beginning 25 April (Saturday) until 13 May (Wednesday), reporters from BBC’s Global News division will travel through India by train, investigating what Indians want from their general election and the key themes surrounding it.

“We had carried out a similar excercise in the US during the recent presidential elections and think that Indian elections also are a very big event. This is why we are covering approximately 6,500 kilometers of India in 18 days,” BBC World Service executive editor South Aisa region Nazes Afroz tells Indiantelevision.com.

BBC reporters will investigate a variety of topics including India’s response to the current economic crisis, security concerns, workings of the world’s largest democracy, India’s rich/poor divide, the role of religion and prominence of the entertainment industry with recent successes like Slumdog Millionaire.

“We are here not to compete with the local channels but to tell the Indian story to our viewers across the globe. Also, through our initiative, we will bring what the outer world thinks about the Indian elections,” Afroz explains.

Online users will be able to track the journey of the train through an interactive map and a daily blog available on the BBC’s India Election webpage.