Building channels, next

ICE PEOPLE/ Vijay Dixit

He is sparing with words but not with his ambition. Little surprise then that real estate developer Vijay Dixit, who runs the Delhi-based Rs 2,500 crore company Senior Builders, wants to get into the television business.

So he has launched Senior Media Limited and wants to kick start a Hindi news channel called S1 which will cater to the National Capital Region (NCR). But that's only in the first phase, he is quick to point out. The goal is to have a bouquet of satellite channels with a national footprint in the next two to three years, says Dixit.

The bouquet is expected to have a clutch of region-specific channels as "despite so many channels, news from the interiors is not covered properly," he says.

In the first phase, Senior Media will invest nearly Rs 115 crore. The teleport for the channel is coming up near Siri Fort in Delhi where Senior Builders had a hotel. The property is now being converted into a studio for S1.

Dixit refuses to elaborate on why he's launching a news channel. "Mujhe hamesha se likhne, padhne ka shauk hai," is all he's willing to say. In fact, he does have some books to his credit, including a collection of poems.

And though he does not like to talk about it, some of his poems are being recorded for an album. However, having established himself in the building business he was only too eager to get into the serious news business. He's found his news channel head in Santosh Bhartia, former editor of "Chauthi Duniya" and a former member of Parliament from UP.

For someone who grew up in UP's Farrukhabad district and comes from a modest background, Dixit has come a long way. Today, his company builds commercial complexes, develops housing colonies and has got into malls in a big way.

His real estate empire extends from Delhi and the NCR to Jaipur and Jallandhar. His next big multiplex-cum-mall project is coming up at Chandigarh.