Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 4 : Entering its 15th year, the Kerala Education Department's KITE-Victers television channel is getting ready to launch its second channel soon, a state government official said. Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) CEO K. Anvar Sadath said Victers began alongside the EDUSAT group in 2005 when then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam inaugurated EDUSAT and it was on August 3, 2006, the Victers channel was launched and since then it has been providing yeomen service to the students studying under the state syllabus. "The biggest hope came when the Covid-19 pandemic struck and the students continue to remain confined at their homes for the second successive year, KITE-Victers channel bridged the digital divide when it provided online classes to five million students," said Sadath, who has been at the helm of KITE for a decade now. "Work to launch the second channel is currently on and we expect to go live shortly. It would be complimenting our existing services," he added. Initially the channel was relaying programmes from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. but from 2009, it was extended till 11 p.m. From January 2010, Victers began live streaming using the internet. From 2019, it became a round the clock channel and in 2020 it was made available in the DTH segment too. In July 2021, KITE started providing the offline version of its First Bell 2.0 Digital Classes for students in the Lakshadweep region who study according to the Kerala school syllabus. And since the Covid-19 pandemic struck hard, the channel has now scheduled substantial time for programmes on Covid-preventive measures, which include telecast of awareness videos related to Covid-19 prevention and a live phone-in programme titled 'Athijeevanam' (which means survival) in association with the Kerala Health Department. The callers in this programme would be able to interact with experts and doctors in respective areas on queries related to Covid-19 testing, quarantine, home isolation and treatment guidelines. /IANS