Old photos of bus submerged under Delhi’s Minto Bridge shared as recent

by Priyanka Jha

On July 13, a Twitter user posted a photo of Delhi’s Minto Bridge underpass. The image featured a DTC bus completely submerged under rainwater. The Chattisgarh Congress Twitter handle quote-tweeted the post and wrote that ‘Sangh’s allies’ have transformed Delhi into Goa.

Varun Puri of the BJP also shared the picture. The accompanying caption read, “Now Delhi’s Ad Man Kejriwal is offering a new underwater bus service”. (Archive link)

Former diplomat KC Singh retweeted a similar post and remarked that such visuals were a regular sight every monsoon season. (Archive link)

In a now-deleted tweet, Vaishali Poddar of the Bhartiya Janata Yuva Morcha also shared the photo, adding that the monsoon season had officially arrived in Delhi. An archived version of the post can be found here. This image has also been circulating on Facebook.

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BJP Delhi spokesperson Gaurav Goyal shared a different picture of a submerged bus and wrote, “Submarines in Delhi.”

Fact-check

First image

A reverse image search of this photo led Alt News to several news reports from 2020. It was carried by The New Indian Express in a story dated July 24, 2020, where it is described as the Minto Bridge underpass.

Several photos of this bridge taken from different angles were shared by a number of Indian media outlets in July 2020. Various videos of the Minto Bridge featuring similar visuals were also being shared online.

Second image

A reverse image search of the second photo revealed that it had originally been taken in 2018. The Deccan Herald had published this snapshot of the Minto Bridge in a July 2018 story.

No waterlogging has been observed thus far around the Minto Road area this year. On July 13, 2021, ANI posted a video reporting that the capital had been receiving rainfall since morning and the traffic situation on Minto Road was as per usual.

On July 14, Aam Aadmi Party leader Atishi shared a video of the Minto Bridge on Twitter and said that despite heavy rains since morning, no waterlogging had been reported and traffic was moving smoothly.

Aaj Tak also posted a video on the afternoon of July 14, where the area was described as free from waterlogging.

Ultimately, old photos of the Minto Bridge underpass was falsely shared as recent.

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About the Author

She specializes in information verification, examining mis/disinformation, social media monitoring and platform accountability. Her aim is to make the internet a safer place and enable people to become informed social media users. She has been a part of Alt News since 2018.