DD also set to be bifurcated

• ‘Saptagiri’ for AP, ‘Yadagiri’ for T
  
• Vijayawada to be AP channel’s HQ

Vijayawada: The government-owned Doordarshan is set for bifurcation with Telangana having its own channel by August. The existing ‘Saptagiri’ channel will be delegated to Andhra Pradesh, with Telangana getting a brand new channel.

According to sources, the Telangana officials of the Information and Broadcasting department have decided to name the new channel “Yadagiri”. The new channel is likely to hit small screen sometime in August. Meanwhile, the DD officials in Hyderabad have already prepared the list of staff to work in Telangana and AP from August. The officials have already asked the 25 staff of different categories to get ready to move by the first week of August. The AP channel – Saptagiri – would start its operations from Vijayawada, the sources added.

The Doordarshan has a small studio in Vijayawada behind the All India Radio which was established in the ’90s. The studio has equipment to design and telecast programmes. Though initially it had telecast some programmes, giving representation to this area, it was subsequently abandoned, with Hyderabad continuing to dominate.

The Vijayawada studio remained active as long as former Union Minister Parvataneni Upendra was active in politics. In fact, it was due to his persuasion that the studio was established here and his exit from active politics cast a shadow on it.

Besides having its own programmes from August, Saptagiri is also planning to have the regional news to be telecast from Vijayawada from August, once the bifurcation is completed. The officials are strengthening the news unit of the DD, which is set to be in place by July end.