A customised bus takes journalists across India, offering news feeds from the 2014 election battleground. Nikhil Bhatia hops aboard this moving news studio — here are his sound bytes.

Of the multiple modes that the media has used to bring you the latest news from the ongoing election campaigns, this could well qualify as most fascinating.

Christened the Election Express, it is a bus whose interiors have been customised for election reporting. Delhi-based Headlines Today is using it to bring viewers the very latest sound bytes from across the country – from Delhi to Kurnool and to Chennai and back to Delhi just before the final results are announced.

Over its 7,500km route across roads and ‘gullies’ of power, this bus will play host to some of India’s most famous or notorious politicians providing an unusual kind of backdrop to some on-ground debates at the country’s political hotspots.

 The idea had its origins in the channel’s requirement for a vehicle that would literally take the news studio out to where the action was unfolding in the heat and dust of the country. The channel decided to rope in Dilip Chhabria’s DC Design whose repertoire includes designing and building custom buses, and some years ago, custom kits for cars.

While the brief of creating something ‘out of this world’ was right up DC Design’s alley, it was the time-frame that was challenging. It typically takes five to six months for a job like this. Here, DC and his team had just 45 days to design and build the final product. Moreover, the supply chain had to work to tight deadlines. For instance, the vendor for the glazing had to deliver within 15 days, a third of the normal time it takes.  At DC Design’s Pimpri facility, over 70 people worked on the bus. In fact, 72,000 manhours went into transforming the stock three-axle Mercedes O 500 RSD 2436 into its new Indian avataar, the Election Express.

ON THE ROLL

We got our chance to see the bus at New Delhi. It is massive at 14 metres from end to end and 3.7 metres tall. Then there is the  design. If you think a bus is all about straight lines and perpendicular details, this is quite something else. It’s the bus equivalent of a futuristic concept car. There’s a nice asymmetry to the design with unusual shapes for the large windows being the standout element. The red-and-black colour scheme adds its visual charm. 

Inside the  Election Express, the hot seat is an L-shaped couch in the very centre of the bus where the interviews are conducted. Of course, a studio isn’t a studio without a production control room and in the bus, it has been built at the back, just aft of the studio.

This is where programme directors and online editors switch between multiple real-time feeds as they would in a traditional studio. The final output from the Election Express is then beamed to the master control room for transmission to your TV screen. Apart from the cameras on ground, news feeds also come from a remote-controlled drone camera. That’s in addition to the jib already onboard. 

On the road and in between shoots, the Election Express’ small army of reporters, cameramen, editors and political experts have a range of creature comforts:  12 reclining seats in high-grade leather, WiFi connectivity, a 40-inch LED TV, refrigerator and power points. There’s an aircraft-style lavatory in there as well.

To keep all the additional equipment running, the bus is equipped with two onboard generators. As for the bus itself, it draws power from a 355bhp, 12-litre, six-cylinder diesel engine. And given that it is the height of summer, the bus’ air-conditioning system is on full blast. It would also come in handy if the debates on board get too heated!

By the time you read this, the bus will be en route from Varanasi to Amethi, two major political hotspots. And while we do not know the poll’s final outcome, what we do know is how news gathering from this gigantic poll exercise has been transformed in this very interesting election in the world's largest democracy.