News on Vande Bharat train leakage in Kerala is shared with an old image.
Rating
Claim
Dear @narendramodi please stop making things. Clearly you are utterly incapable to make anything right. 🙄 “VANDE BHARAT” on the 1st day of inauguration rain water started leaking from the roof of VB in Kerala. A picture is worth a thousand words.
Explanation
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Kerala’s first Vande Bharat Express train on 25, April 2023 from Thiruvananthapuram. He also inaugurated the Kochi Water Metro, one of its kind project that connects multiple islands through electric hybrid boats.
Meanwhile, an image is shared widely on Twitter with the claim that, on the first day of the inauguration of the Vande Bharat train in Kerala, rainwater started leaking from its roof. Some of the images shared with such a claim can be seen here and here. The image is of a train driver holding an umbrella in one hand to protect himself and the control panel from leaking rainwater from the roof of the train.
What is the truth?
When reverse-searching the viral image, we found that the image is old and is not related to Vande Bharat Express. India Times article dated 11, August 2017 is found carrying the viral image mentioning that the driver was seen piloting the locomotive holding an umbrella in one hand. The article further mentions that the video was captured near Dhanbad, Jharkhand.
Indian Express article dated 2017 is also found carrying similar visuals from the incident crediting the visuals to a Twitter user Sucheta Dalal. The first Vande Bharat train was started in India in 2019.
A video from the same incident is found on a tweet dated 9, August 2017 by Sucheta Dalal with the caption “Railway safety? @sureshpprabhu and @RailMinIndia need to take a serious look without victimising whistleblower”.
Railway safety? @sureshpprabhu and @RailMinIndia need to take a serious look without victimising whistleblower pic.twitter.com/Ue7rv0LwTP
— Sucheta Dalal (@suchetadalal) August 9, 2017
However, the incident of rainwater leakage in the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat Express in Kerala is true.
Times Now News article dated 26, April 2023 reported that the leak in the Vande Bharat Express was discovered by railway officials on 26th April morning and has been plugged by technicians before the train’s scheduled departure from Kasaragod after 2 pm.
Conclusion
It is found that the image shared as rainwater leakage in Vande Bharat Express in Kerala is old and unrelated. However, there was indeed a leak in the newly inaugurated Vande Bharat Express in Kerala.
