On Tuesday, 20 July, Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways in a tweet said that the construction of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway is taking place at a record speed. He also attached two photos along with the tweet. The first photo is described as an interchange near Ankleshwar city in Bharuch, Gujarat. The other photo is described as a bridge constructed over the Narmada river in Bharuch.
(Photo Courtesy: archive.is/Screenshot)
The tweet was later deleted by Nitin Gadkari, however, several social media users are posting the first photo with the claim of it being the photo of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway.
A Twitter user, Pravin Alai, tweeted the first photo with the claim of it being the photo of the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. The caption along with the post reads: “Construction of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway at record speed. #PragatiKaHighway”.
(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Screenshot)
An archived version of the same claim by several users can be accessed here, here, here, and here.
(Photo Courtesy: Facebook/ Screenshot)
FactO Check:
The claim about the first photo being Delhi-Mumbai Expressway from the Ankleshwar, Gujarat is false. The photo is of Yamuna Expressway which connects Delhi to Agra.
We reverse searched the first viral photo and the result directed us to the website of the Indian multinational steel-making company — JSW Steel — a subsidiary of JSW groups. The website carries the viral photo and is described as the Yamuna Expressway.
(Photo Courtesy: JSW Steel/Screenshot)
According to the website, JSW was part of the Yamuna Expressway project. The 6-lane expressway is 165 km which connects Delhi to Agra and was inaugurated in 2014. The expressway has also featured in the World’s top 100 innovative infrastructure projects by international accounting firm KPMG.
We also found the viral expressway photo used by The Times of India in an article published on 5 October 2015. The article is titled “Faridabad-Gr Noida road to be extended upto Yamuna E-way” and the photo is described as “Road connecting Faridabad-Greater Noida will be made upto Yamuna Expressway going through Jasana-Majhawali-Atta-Gujran-Jaganpur”.
(Photo Courtesy: TOI/Screenshot)
The viral expressway photo is not of Delhi-Mumbai Expressway but of Yamuna Expressway inaugurated in 2014. Nitin Gadkari deleted the photo as soon as he realized that he posted the wrong photo, however, other social media users kept on sharing the photo with the false claim.
Delhi-Mumbai Expressway
The Delhi-Mumbai Expressway will be the longest expressway in India and is an 8-lane greenfield expressway. The expressway will be 1350 km long connecting the national capital Delhi to the financial capital Mumbai. The construction of the expressway was started in 2018 and will complete by 2023. Gadkari, in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, has said, out of the total length of the project, 350 km has already been completed and the construction of the remaining 825 km is in progress.
About the author
Md Mahfooz Alam
Mahfooz is a multimedia journalist and regularly writes fact-check stories for Facto News. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. He has worked as an intern fact-checker for The Quint. He specializes in research and fact-checking and aspires to do investigative reporting.