NEW DELHI: Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh, the free-to-air and digital 24-hour Hindi city-centric regional news channel will telecast Badrinath's Kapaat opening live from Badrinath on Thursday, 8 May 2003 at 4.00 am. 
"This is the first time in the history of television when the viewers will be able to see the grand event live sitting in their homes," Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh head Prabhat Dabral was quoted as saying in a release.
"We will use the best of state-of-the-art resources including OB Vans and helicopters to ensure complete and comprehensive coverage of Badrinath's Kapaat opening," Dabral added.
Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh, a part of the network of 31 city-centric regional news channels was launched on 28 March 2003. The release states that the first-of-its-kind news channel offers local news in an international packaging. Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh offers local city news bulletins for six cities of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal, viz Agra, Gorakhpur, Kanpur, Lucknow, Varanasi and Dehradun in addition to state news, national news and international news to keep its viewers abreast of the latest news and events.
"Sahara Samay will not only report and analyse news, views and issues as they happen but follow them to their logical conclusion. Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh has been positioned as a people's channel and will be the voice of the people in every sense of the word," said Sahara TV vice president (Publicity & PR) Prriya Raj.
Explaining the relevance of coverage of events like Badrinath's Kapaat opening, Raj elaborated: "Such local events are newsworthy and people do want to watch them. Sahara Samay is a people's channel and these kind of events will surely create an emotional bonding with our viewers who can now watch it live through satellite in the comfort of their homes anywhere in India - and several other countries under the footprint of AsiaSat 3S."
The release states that Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh offers instant, in-depth and exhaustive local coverage on the same day to its viewers instead of them waiting till the next morning. It attempts to offer maximum possible coverage with minimum possible repetition using the world's most advanced, Asia's largest and India's first fully-automated electronic news production and state-of-the-art transmission technology.
Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh has an impressive line-up of special programmes including Subah Parikrama (daily 8.00 am. - 9.00 am.), Samay Shikhar (daily 8.00 pm - 9.00 pm), Sahara Abhiyaan, Biscope, Aap Ka MLA and Aakhir Kya Hua.
On its plans to cover more local events live Dabral said: "After the live event of Badrinaath's Kapaat opening, we are planning to cover several other local events of Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal on our newschannel. You will see Urs of Deva Sharif, Barsane Ki Lathmar Holi, Ganga Aarti at Haridwar Youth festival at Universities & IIT and much much more."
"And all this in truly international packaging and presentation live only on Sahara Samay Uttar Pradesh," Prabhat was quoted as saying.