Has Vande Bharat reached to Nagaland?? Here are the facts.
An image showing some people from the Northeast Region standing near the Vande Bharat train is making rounds on Social media platform X (formerly Twitter). Users are sharing this image with captions indicating that Vande Bharat has reached to Nagaland now.
Posting this image on X, a user named Karthik Reddy wrote: “People of Nagaland pose in front of Vande Bharat Express. Did you know? Nagaland got its 2nd railway station only in 2022. The first was in 1903. That’s how deprived the successive govts kept them in connectivity. For almost 100 years”
Moreover, Major Surendra Poonia also posted this image and a similar claim which was further reposted by Journalist Ashok Srivastav, a senior consulting editor on DD news. The link can be seen here.
Fact-check
The DFRAC team fact-checked the above viral claim. A google keyword search in this regard led us to a report by Morung Express dated June 4, 2023. As per this report, the railways are targeting to introduce Vande Bharat in other unreached routes by June-end, but Nagaland and by extension, the upper Assam route would not be among them any time soon.
The report further mentioned: “As per NFR sources, it would most likely reach only Lumding, Assam. The reason was attributed to lack of double-line or double-track after Lumding”
Upon further investigation, we discovered a report by Nagaland Post dated May 22, 2023. According to this report, the first Vande Bharat express of the North-east region will run from New Jalpaiguri (NJP) station to Guwahati on six days a week.
Moreover, as per reports from TOI, Outlook & The Economic Times, there are only two railway stations available in Nagaland. The first is Dimapur Railway Station, inaugurated in 1903 & the second is Shokhuvi Railway Station.
Notably, no information or any update has been found stating that Vande Bharat trains run b/w these stations of Nagaland.
Conclusion
It is clear from DFRAC’s fact-check that the image made with the claim has been misleadingly shared on X. The Vande Bharat trains have not reached to Nagaland.
Analysis: Misleading
