Sahara plans 38 news channels

Mumbai: On the eve of its silver jubilee year, Sahara India Pariwar, which has a Rs 16,000-crore asset-base, has announced its plans to launch a bouquet of 38 news channels a national news channel and 37 independent city-based regional news channels covering Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, the Delhi region and Mumbai.

With the launch of these 38 news channels, Sahara TV aims to focus on a unique concept of providing not just national and international news but also in-depth, high-quality city-based and regional news coverage in these states. This bouquet will contain local news channels for the following cities:

UP and Uttaranchal	MP and Chhattisgarh	Rajasthan	Bihar and Jharkhand	Mumbai	Delhi region
Lucknow	Bhopal	Jaipur	Patna	Mumbai	Delhi
Gorakhpur	Indore	Udaipur	Ranchi	Thane	Noida
Varanasi	Raipur	Kota	Bhagalpur	Vashi	Ghaziabad
Agra	Gwalior	Bikaner	Jamshedpur		Faridabad
Dehradun	Jabalpur	Jodhpur	Muzaffarpur		Gurgaon
Meerut		Ajmer	Dhanbad
Kanpur			Purnea
Bareilly			Chapra
Allahabad			Gaya

Announcing this, Sahara India Pariwar managing worker and chairman Subrata Roy Sahara said: "Driven by the objective of our mission to communicate with all Indians, the most distinctive aspect of Sahara TVs news channels will be to fulfill the ever-increasing demand for quality and a comprehensive news coverage. Along with a team of highly-dedicated professionals, news bureaus and the extensive VSAT networking of Sahara India Pariwar, we are ready to provide a bouquet of news channels with a difference."

Under this new capital-intensive project, Sahara TV will cover even smaller cities and towns by making optimum utilisation of Sahara India Pariwars high-connectivity support system that include VSAT network, bureaus for newsgathering and human resources. Said Sahara: "This bouquet of 38 news channels will provide a major fillip not only to the Indian broadcasting industry but also to the 39 million cable and satellite viewers."

The decision fulfills the commitment made by Sahara on 5 July 2000 to introduce a news and current affairs channel. The idea, evolved after several rounds of discussions, has emerged in this unique concept of news-delivery to offer comprehensive regional and local news with national and international coverage using most-modern technologies.