Mumbai: Stepping up its outreach to neighbours through airwaves, All India Radio (AIR) has decided to double its transmission time in six languages, starting 3 January.

Making the announcement, the External Services Division of AIR said, the broadcast time has been doubled from the existing 1- 1.5 hours to three hours. The six languages include Dari, Pashto, Tibetan, Nepali, Baluchi, and Mandarin Chinese. The transmission would now be available daily for 1.5 hours every morning as well as evening.

While Balochi is spoken in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, Dari and Pashto are spoken in Afghanistan which is currently under Taliban rule.

Keeping its mandate of reaching out to regions across the globe the External Affairs Division of AIR currently broadcasts in French, Sindhi, Indonesian, Tibetan, Mandarin Chinese, Baluchi, Urdu, Pashto, Arabic, Swahili, Punjabi, Saraiki, Bengali, Persian, Nepali, and Dari.