Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
Claim
Trial run of a train on the under-construction railway bridge on Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir.
Fact
Geo-location tool confirmed the location of the bridge seen in the viral clip to be in China. Video traced back to at least June 2022.
A video of a train passing through a bridge constructed over a valley is going viral on social media platforms. Several Twitter and Facebook users shared the viral clip with the caption, “a successful small train test run of the world’s highest railway track under construction on Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link on Chenab river,” or the Chenab bridge in Jammu and Kashmir. Newschecker found that the video is being shared in a false context.
Such posts can be found here, here, here, here, here and here.
The video has also found its way to YouTube.
The Indian government’s ambitious project, the Chenab bridge is part of the strategically important Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link project (USBRL) which will connect Jammu & Kashmir to the rest of India. Once completed, it will be the highest Railway Bridge in the world, at an altitude of 359m above the river bed level. The bridge will be 35 metres higher than the iconic Eiffel Tower in Paris (France).
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The construction of the bridge is expected to be completed soon. Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently visited the Chenab bridge construction site for inspection. The Railway Ministry shared a video of the first run of a track mounted vehicle on the Chenab Bridge and inspection by the Union Minister.
Fact Check/Verification
On comparing the keyframes of the viral footage with the visuals of Chenab bridge shared by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on his Twitter handle on March 26, 2023, we found certain discrepancies. Firstly, the colour of the metal arch supporting the bridges is different. While the arch seen in the viral clip is rust/orange in colour, the one in visuals shared by Vaishnaw is green/black. Additionally, we did not spot the stream of water under the bridge in the video posted by the Railway Minister, however a river is seen passing under it in the viral clip.
Hence, we could conclude that the viral video does not show “successful small train test run on Chenab bridge.”
We continued our investigation to ascertain the whereabouts of the bridge seen in the viral clip. On scanning through the comment sections of posts carrying the footage, we spotted a user pointing out that the video is from China.
Taking a clue, we looked up “China,” “Railway Arch Bridge,” & “River” on Google which led us to a website called Highest Bridges. It carried images of a bridge identical to the one seen in the viral footage, and identified it as the Beipanjiang Railway Bridge Shuibai of China.
Further, we conducted a keyword search for “Beipanjiang Railway Bridge Shuibai” in Chinese on Google. This yielded multiple websites identifying the bridge seen in the viral video as the Beipanjiang Bridge. Such websites can be seen here, here, here and here.
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Website Structurae.net also listed the coordinates of the bridge ( 26° 12′ 34.23″ N 104° 43′ 13.54″ E) while detailing other information about it. We looked up the same on Google Maps, and were able to spot the arch bridge seen in the viral video.
Furthermore, a Facebook post by user Andan, dated June 27, 2022, carried the viral video with the caption, “Beipan River Bridge 🇨🇳 Guizhou…”
Conclusion
We could thus conclude that a video of a train passing through a bridge in China has been falsely shared to show the Indian government’s ambitious railway bridge over the Chenab River in Jammu & Kashmir.
Result: False
Sources
Tweet By Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Dated March 26, 2023
Website Highest Bridges
Google Maps
Facebook Post By Andan, Dated June 27, 2022
Self Analysis
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Authors
Vasudha noticed the growing problem of mis/disinformation online after studying New Media at ACJ in Chennai and became interested in separating facts from fiction. She is interested in learning how global issues affect individuals on a micro level. Before joining Newschecker’s English team, she was working with Latestly.
