BBC commissions India Election Train

A unique multiplatform, multilingual train journey, covering India’s General Election and looking at its place within the troubled global economy.

The BBC today announces the commission of its ‘India Election Train’ – a unique multiplatform, multilingual initiative - delivering international audiences a diverse range of news from across India, during the run-up to the country’s General Election in May.

From Saturday, 25 April until Wednesday, 13 May reporters from the 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.

On board the train will 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. Highly knowledgeable about the country, a number permanently based there, the journalists will broadcast stories to the world, across radio, TV and online.

The BBC has worked with Indian Railways to design a timetable for the project and the train will travel along the following route: Dehli-Ahmedabad-Mumbai-Hyderabad-Bhubaneswar-Kokata (Calcutta)-Patna-Allahabad-Dehli. With the team visiting major population centres, as well as contrasting provincial towns and rural areas, the BBC’s global audience will get to hear the views of a wide range of Indian voters.

Online users will be able to track the journey of the train through a special interactive map and a daily blog available on the BBC’s India Election webpage www.bbc.com/india.

BBC reporters will investigate a variety of topics throughout their journey, with a key one being India’s response to the current economic crisis. India’s economy is still growing and some believe it could assist the recovery of other markets around the world.

Security will also be addressed, since following the Mumbai bombings it has become an important issue for many Indians. Other themes to be covered are the 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 including ‘Slumdog Millionaire’.

Richard Sambrook, Director BBC Global News, says: “The BBC’s approach to covering the India Election is unique and representative of the breadth and depth of its newsgathering facility. Multiplatform and multilingual, the BBC India Election Train will provide audiences in India and around the world with an in-depth view of the election and the key themes and issues surrounding it”.