Fact Check: Indian Railways’ goods train did not take 3 yrs to reach its destination
Indian Railways is one of the premier transporters of passengers and goods in the country. It is also the largest employer
Goods train
Indian Railways is one of the premier transporters of passengers and goods in the country. It is also the largest employer of Indian citizens. People in India prefer to travel by train rather than by air because it's cheaper and more accessible. Apart from its numerous advantages, Indian Railways also has it own challenges. One of the disadvantages is the lack of punctuality of trains. There are several reasons for the late arrivals, they can be infrastructure problems, weather issues, heavy traffic, technical glitches, and others. These delays are generally frequent during the winter months when delays can stretch from 12-24 hours.
Recently, several news websites and also social media posts shared a post claiming that a goods train took over three years to reach its destination in India. Some news reports shared the duration as 3 years, 8 months, and 7 days instead of 42 hours. The news reports claim that the goods train which started from Visakhapatnam took nearly 4 years to reach the destination in Uttar Pradesh’s Basti. The goods train carrying 1,316 bags of fertilizer was scheduled to complete its journey in around 42 hours. After complaints by the consignee, the authorities found that it had disappeared.
Here is the screenshot of the Claim.
Fact Check:
The claim is Misleading. Only a single wagon belonging to the goods train went missing but not the whole goods train.
When we searched using appropriate keywords, we found that a single wagon from the goods train went missing and not the whole goods train. According to ‘The Economic Times, the goods contained in a wagon numbered ‘107462’ were to reach their destination in a timely manner. But for three years there was no news of the missing wagon. Finally, on July 25, 2018, the wagon was found and reached Basti, but by that time the fertilizer had deteriorated.
According to India Tv news, the consignee is Ramchandra Gupta, a businessman of Basti, and the wagon was booked in his name in 2014 from Vishakhapatnam through Indian Potash Limited (IPL). The train, carrying goods worth over Rs 14 lakhs, departed from Visakhapatnam as per the schedule, with the usual journey time being 42 hours to complete the trip. However, contrary to expectations, the train did not arrive on time.
When the train failed to reach Basti in November 2014, Ramchandra Gupta contacted the railway authorities and submitted numerous written complaints. Despite his repeated notifications, no action was taken by the authorities. It was only later discovered that the train had gone missing en route. The Chief Public relations officer of the North Eastern Railway zone, Sanjay Yadav, said, "Sometimes, when some wagon or bogie becomes sick (unfit to ferry), it is sent to the yard and it seems that the same happened in this case too."
The Central Government’s Fact Check unit, the PIB Fact Check, has also stated that the post is Misleading. It also stated, "No goods train in Indian Railways has ever taken much time to reach its destination."
Hence, the claim that a goods train took more than 3 years to reach its destination is Misleading. A single wagon belonging to a goods train was misplaced, not the whole train.