Only a week ago, Train 18, which is touted to be India’s fastest train once it hits the tracks, was renamed ‘Vande Bharat Express’, to highlight that the train has been built under the ‘Make in India’ initiative.
Now, in a bid to highlight the speed of the train, none other than Railway Minister Piyush Goyal himself seems to have gone for an overkill.
CLAIM
On Saturday, 9 February, the minister tweeted a video to showcase the ‘lightning speed’ of the train.
“It’s a bird...It’s a plane...Watch India’s first semi-high speed train built under ‘Make in India’ initiative, Vande Bharat Express zooming past at lightening speed,” he exclaimed.
TRUE OR FALSE
The Quint found out that the video is indeed of the Vande Bharat Express. However, the version that Goyal tweeted out was an edited one, as it has been sped up!
WHAT WE FOUND
At the time of writing this article, Goyal’s tweet had garnered more than 7,000 retweets.
The Quint looked up on the Internet for the original video and found out that it had been uploaded by a YouTube channel ‘The Rail Mail’.
Here is the original video:
In the description box, it can be seen that the video was uploaded on 20 December 2018.
The description further reads, “#Train18 2nd trail on Delhi-Agra route held today. Train achieved maximum speed of 181kmph. Likely to be flagged off by PM Narendra Modi by 26 January for Varanasi. Delhi-Allahabad/Prayagraj Trial on 29 December”.
The channel has so far been subscribed by more than 9,000 people.
Since being put out, the tweet has both been called out and celebrated. A number of users pointed out that the video is an edited one in the reply to the tweet itself.
However, The Quint could locate at least two media organisations reporting about the tweet, echoing Goyal’s enthusiasm.
The Financial Express also reported on Goyal’s tweet, saying that the video will give the readers “goosebumps”.
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