A post with a couple of videos in which a railway bridge can be seen partly submerged in a river is being widely shared on social media with the claim that the bridge is part of Solapur-Bijapur route which is partly submerged in Bheema river near Tadwal railway station. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a partly submerged railway bridge in Bheema river near Tadwal railway station which is part of Solapur-Bijapur route.
Fact: The video in the post is of Tandava bridge, Andhra Pradesh which got partly submerged in the river back in 2012. The video has nothing to do with the railway bridge between Solapur- Bijapur and the recent rainfall in various parts of the country. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
Reverse image search of the screen shots of the video in the post led us to few Telugu news videos which reported the same video as flood water overflowing over Tandava railway bridge at Tuni, Andhra Pradesh. These videos can be watched here and here.
Further YouTube search with relevant keywords led us to videos from 2012 which carried the same visuals like those in the video in the post. These videos can be watched here and here. According to the description of these videos, the bridge which is seen partially submerged in the river is Tandava bridge which is at Tuni, Andhra Pradesh.
Taking a cue from these videos, we ran a Google search with relevant keywords and found news articles dating back to November 2012 which reported the event of Tandava bridge being partially submerged in river due to floods. These news articles can be read here and here. Also, we found a press note released by South Central Railway back in November 2012 which states that the General Manager of South Central Railway has visited the flood-affected Tandava railway bridge.
Further Google search led us to a news article which reported the South Central Railway’s clarification that this video an old one and not of recent rains. They also clarified that the Tandava bridge is not submerged and is in good condition and asked people not to believe fake news regarding the submerging of the bridge. With all this information, we can conclude that the video in the post shows neither the railway bridge between Solapur–Bijapur route nor the recent situation of Tandava bridge at Tuni.
To sum it up, old video of Tandava bridge in Andhra Pradesh is being passed off as Solapur-Bijapur railway bridge is submerged in Bheema river.
