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| - Fact Check: 2010 image from Germany passed off as construction of LPG pipeline in Gorakhpur
India Today Anti Fake News War Room has found the viral post claiming "World's longest LPG pipeline coming up in UP's Gorakhpur" misleading.
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India Today Fact Check
Though such a project is in the works, the image used was taken in Germany in April 2010. This pipeline was constructed for supplying natural gas from Russia to Western Europe.
As elections in Uttar Pradesh draw closer, the precarious Covid-19 situation has ensured that political parties and their supporters rely on digital campaigns more than ever.
And since the BJP announced Yogi Adityanath as its candidate from Gorakhpur (Urban), a section of social media users are sharing a postcard with an image of an under-construction project. In the viral image, a huge pipe can be seen being laid underground with the help of cranes.
The postcard reads, “World’s longest LPG pipeline coming up in UP’s Gorakhpur, to be commissioned by 2023. The Kandla-Gorakhpur pipeline is being built at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore. The 2,757-km long pipeline will supply gas to 34 crore households. A game-changing project that will usher in LPG revolution in India!”
The archived versions of similar posts can be seen here and here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the claim along with the image to be misleading. Though such a project in UP is in the works, the picture used on the viral postcard was originally taken 12 years ago in Germany.
AFWA probe
Using keyword search, we came across an article from March last year that had used the same image to report on the LPG pipeline work in UP.
We then ran a reverse search on this higher resolution image and found a report published by “The New York Times” on April 8, 2010. Here, the caption along with the picture says, “Cranes lower a section of pipe into the ground near Lubmin, Germany. Sean Gallup/Getty Images”.
For further confirmation, we visited the official “Getty Images” website and found the original photograph which was taken by Sean Gallup in Germany.
The Getty Images caption said, “A worker shouts commands as cranes lower a section of pipe into the ground for the OPAL pipeline on April 8, 2010 near Lubmin, Germany. The OPAL and NEL pipelines will carry natural gas from Russia arriving through the Nord Stream pipeline from the Baltic Sea across Germany and to other countries in Europe. The Nord Stream project delivers Russian natural gas directly to western Europe and avoids countries in between, such as Poland and Ukraine.”
A report by “The Times of India” dated February 22, 2019, gave details of the Rs 9,000-crore Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG pipeline project.
Then petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan had said the 1,987-km long pipeline will cater to cooking fuel needs of a fourth of India’s population. The pipeline, traversing from the Gujarat coast to UP via Madhya Pradesh will “possibly be the longest in the world”, the minister had said.
Therefore, we can conclude that the viral image is not of the Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG pipeline project but was taken in Germany in April 2010.
(With inputs by Riddhish Dutta in Kolkata)
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