This photo does not show India's Delhi-Mumbai Expressway

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 2, 2021 at 05:12
2 min read
By AFP India

Multiple Facebook posts have shared a photo of a highway alongside a claim it shows the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway, which is currently under construction in India. The claim is false: the photo actually depicts the Yamuna Expressway, the third longest in India, which was inaugurated in 2012.

The image was shared on July 20 by a Facebook page with more than 150,000 followers.

"Construction of #Delhi- #Mumbai Expressway at record speed. #PragatiKaHighway [#thehighwayofprogress]," the post reads.

Text superimposed on the photo reads, "Onsite progress of Greenfield corridors" and "Delhi Mumbai Expressway".

Screenshot of the misleading post taken on August 1, 2021

The eight-lane Delhi-Mumbai Expressway was constructed as part of a flagship project by India's ruling BJP, which will see the development of five expressways and 17 national highways across India.

The misleading posts were shared after India's road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari told parliament that authorities aimed to finish construction of the expressway by January 2023. The government plans to complete all 25 projects by the fiscal year of 2025, Mint newspaper reported.

The photo was also shared alongside a similar claim by several other accounts on Facebook such as here and here, and also by a BJP worker, seen here.

However, the claim is false.

A reverse image search on TinEye found the same photo here on Indian steel-making company JSW Steel's website, which shows the Yamuna Expressway that connects the cities of Noida and Agra.

A satellite view of the Yamuna Expressway can also be seen here on Google Maps.

The Yamuna Expressway, India's longest six-lane highway, was built at a cost of 120 billion rupees (1.6 billion dollars) and opened to the public in 2012, AFP reported here.

Below is a comparison between the image of the expressway shared in the misleading Facebook posts and the photo found on the website of JSW Steel.

Screenshot comparison of the picture in a misleading post (left) and on JSW's website (right)

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