Viral Photo of pothole-ridden road in front of the Department of Roads building is from Nepal, not Rajasthan - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 13, 2024
A photo depicting a road riddled with potholes, right in front of a Department of Roads building, is widely circulated on social media (here, here) with claims suggesting it is from Rajasthan, India. Let’s verify this claim through this article.
Claim: The photo shows a potholed road in front of a Department of Roads building, is from Rajasthan, India.
Fact: Contrary to the viral claim, the building shown in the photo is the Department of Roads building located in Babarmahal, Kathmandu, Nepal. The photo went viral in Nepalese social media before, which provoked the Divisional office under the Department of Roads, Kathmandu, to issue a statement explaining the poor condition of the road within the department’s premises. They urged the public not to share such photos intending to portray the poor state of the country without understanding the reality. Therefore, the claim made in the post is False.
To verify this viral claim, we carried out a reverse image search of the viral photo, which led us to several news articles (here, here and here) containing the same image.
Reportedly, this photo was taken in front of the Department of Roads building in Babarmahal, Kathmandu, Nepal. It was shared by a social media user named Dipendra Chaulagai, and the post went viral.
सडक विभाग हजुर! दबाब यात्रा यता पो गर्ने की! नजिकै 😂🫢 pic.twitter.com/4hP4URpwK6
Following this, the Kathmandu Divisional office of the Department of Roads issued a statement declaring the reaction to the muddy road as ‘exaggerated’ and attributed the road’s state to recent rains. They added that while the office building was being renovated following an earthquake, road construction was not included in that contract and was, therefore, being handled separately.  They urged the public not to share such photos intending to portray the poor state of the country without understanding the reality.
Additionally, India Today contacted a local journalist who supplied a current photo of the roads in front of the same building.
To sum up, the viral photo depicting a pothole-filled road in front of a Department of Roads building is from Katmandu, Nepal, not Rajasthan, India as claimed.