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| - Fact Check: PM Modi never said Vajpayee started the first Metro in India
Many on social media have claimed that PM Modi, in a speech, had said the credit for the first metro service in the country goes to late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
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India Today Fact Check
While inaugurating India’s first driverless metro train in Delhi on December 28, PM Modi had said the first metro train in Delhi ran because of Vajpayee’s efforts. India’s first Metro service was in Kolkata, whose foundation stone was laid by former PM Indira Gandhi in 1972.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first driverless metro train operations on Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line on December 28. Soon after, social media was engaged in a debate on who started the first metro rail service in the country.
Many on Facebook claimed that PM Modi, in his speech, had said the credit for the first metro service in the country goes to Vajpayee.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that PM Modi had said the first metro train in Delhi ran because of Vajpayee’s efforts. He had never used the word “country” while referring to Vajpayee in his speech. India’s first planned and operational metro rail service was the Kolkata Metro, whose foundation stone was laid by former PM Indira Gandhi in 1972.
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While inaugurating the country’s first driverless metro train operations on Delhi Metro’s Magenta Line on December 28, PM Modi had said, “The Metro was discussed in Delhi for years. But the first Metro ran because of the efforts of Atal ji.”
The entire speech of PM Modi can be read here in the PIB press release.
It is clear that he was referring to the Delhi metro and nowhere used the word “country” while talking about Vajpayee’s contribution. The exact portion of his speech that had created confusion on social media can be heard after 16.04 minutes on the YouTube link below.
The confusion began after news agency ANI posted a tweet on December 28 that PM Modi had said, “First metro in the country was started with the efforts of Atal Ji.” It later made the correction and wrote that PM Modi had said, “First metro in Delhi* was started with the efforts of Atal Ji.”
Correction | First metro in Delhi* was started with the efforts of Atal Ji. When our govt was formed in 2014, only 5 cities had metro services & today 18 cities have metro rail service. By 2025, we will take this service to more than 25 cities: PM Narendra Modi pic.twitter.com/snv7PFkQBW— ANI (@ANI) December 28, 2020
India’s first metro service
As per the website of Kolkata Metro Rail Corporation, India’s first planned and operational metro service was Kolkata Metro.
As reported by mainstream media former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had laid the foundation for the project in 1972. On October 24, 1984, the first stretch of 3.4 km between Esplanade and Bhowanipore was completed, and that was the first metro line in India.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was established in 1995 and work on the metro began on October 1, 1998.
As per media reports, then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee put the work of Delhi metro on the fast track, and on December 24, 2002, he inaugurated the first section of the Metro between Shahdara and Tis Hazari (now Red Line).
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