The train in the video appears to be travelling across the Shuibai Railway Bridge in Guizhou Province, China.
Supposedly showing a trial run on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link across the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir, a video of a train crossing a high-altitude bridge over the river has gone viral on social media.
After investigating, India Fake News discovered that the video actually shows a train crossing the Shuibai Railway Bridge on the Beipan River in China’s Guizhou Province, refuting the original claims.
The “railway track under construction on the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link on the Chenab valley in Jammu and Kashmir,” according to an ANI report, was recently used by a small train. There have been claims that this bridge is the highest of its kind in the world. This is the context in which the video is being disseminated.
With the caption “Successful small train test run was conducted on 21 March on world’s highest railway track under construction on Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link on Chenab river in J&K,” Twitter user Kabla Singh, who identifies himself as a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Jammu and Kashmir unit, shared the video.
Congratulations India.#WorldhigheshRailwayBridge#JammuAndKashmir
— KABLA SINGH BJP (@kablasinghbjp) March 25, 2023
Successful small train test run was conducted on 21 March on world's highest railway track under construction on Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link on Chenab river in J&K.@DrJitendraSingh @ashishsood_bjp pic.twitter.com/oihi0DGzk0
We also discovered numerous additional tweets that featured the same video and caption.
The video was widely distributed on Facebook with the same assertion. All three of these links lead to similar posts.
Fact Check
Using keyword searches, India Fake News was able to find a few articles and tweets about the development of the Udhampur-Srinagar-Baramulla rail link.
The laying of the track for the bridge began around the middle of February, as stated by Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Railways.
The bridge “will soon witness trains passing through it,” Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, tweeted on March 25, 2023. Singh posted a snapshot of continuing maintenance on the train rails.
Track laying work started on the world’s highest rail arch bridge.
— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) February 21, 2023
#ChenabBridge pic.twitter.com/RuTrj1J1Oc
This indicates that the Chenab valley railway bridge connecting Udhampur, Srinagar, and Baramulla is still in the planning phases and would not be operational for some time. The bridge in the video, on the other hand, looks to be fully functional.
In addition, the most recent report from ANI indicates that a tiny train used the Chenab valley railway bridge for a trial run on March 21st, 2023.
World’s highest railway bridge in district #Reasi of #JammuAndKashmir over river Chenab will soon witness trains passing through it.
— Dr Jitendra Singh (@DrJitendraSingh) March 25, 2023
A dream come true under the leadership of PM Sh @NarendraModi. pic.twitter.com/Y7EwOBaSHY
The train seen in the viral video crossing the bridge, however, was not a toy train; it had nine carriages and an engine, making it very sizable.
In addition, on March 26, 2023, photographs of the Chenab Bridge were posted on the Twitter account of Northern Railway. The bridge’s arch is red in the viral video, but it’s dark green in the photographs posted by the Northern Railway.
However, the train seen passing across the bridge in the viral video was not small – it was a relatively large train with nine coaches and an engine.
We also located photos of the Chenab Bridge that were posted on Northern Railway’s Twitter on March 26, 2023. While the arch of the bridge in the viral video is red in colour, the arch of the bridge seen in the photos shared by the Northern Railway is dark green.
