On 28 December, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated India’s first unmanned metro train operations on Delhi Metro’s Magenta line. Shortly afterwards, social media was engaged in a debate over who started the first metro railway service in the country.
Lots of Facebook claims that Prime Minister Modi in his speech said the honor for the first metro service in the country goes to Vajpayee.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found that Prime Minister Modi said the first metro train in Delhi was running because of Vajpayee’s efforts. He has never used the word ‘land’ while referring to Vajpayee in his speech. India’s first planned and operational metro railway service was the Kolkata Metro, the first of which was laid in 1972 by Indira Gandhi.
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While PM Modi inaugurated the country’s first driverless metro train services on the Magenta Line of Delhi Metro on December 28, PM Modi said: ‘The Metro has been booked in Delhi for years. But the first Metro ran due to the efforts of Atal ji. ”
The entire speech of PM Modi can be read here in the GDP press release.
It is clear that he was referring to the Delhi metro and did not use the word ‘country’ anywhere when talking about Vajpayee’s contribution. The exact portion of his speech that caused confusion on social media can be heard after 16.04 minutes on the YouTube link below.
The confusion began after the news agency ANI posted a tweet on December 28 saying that Prime Minister Modi had said: “The first metro in the country has started with the efforts of Atal Ji.” It later made the correction and wrote that Prime Minister Modi said: “The first metro in Delhi * has started with the efforts of Atal Ji.”
Correction | The first metro in Delhi * was started with the efforts of Atal Ji. When our government was established in 2014, only 5 cities had metro services, and today 18 cities have a metro rail service. By 2025 we are taking this service to more than 25 cities: PM Narendra Modi pic.twitter.com/snv7PFkQBW
– ANI (@ANI) 28 December 2020
India’s first metro service
According to 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 laid the foundations for the project in 1972. On 24 October 1984, the first 3.4 km stretch between Esplanade and Bhowanipore was completed, and it was the first metro line in India.
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation was established in 1995 and work on the subway began on October 1, 1998.
As per media reports, when the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, put the work of the 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).
ClaimPrime Minister Narendra Modi said the first metro train in the country was started due to efforts by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. ClosureWhile inaugurating India’s first driverless metro train in Delhi on December 28, Prime Minister Modi said the first metro train in Delhi was running because of Vajpayee’s efforts. India’s first metro service was in Kolkata, of which Prime Minister Indira Gandhi laid the foundation stone in 1972.
JHOOTH BOLE KAUVA KAATE
The number of crows determines the intensity of the lie.
- 1 Crow: Half true
- 2 crows: mostly lies
- 3 crows: absolutely false
