An old photo from 2010 showing an under construction project of a natural gas pipeline in Germany is being shared with the false claim that it is from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh showing the Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG pipeline project.
The viral photo shows cranes lowering a section of pipe into the ground at a construction site.
The assembly election is going to be held in Uttar Pradesh in 7 phases from February 10, 2022, till March 7, 2022, with the results to be declared on March 10, 2022. The Bharatiya Janata Party released its first list of 107 candidates on January 15, 2022, for the Assembly elections fielding Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from Gorakhpur Urban constituency.
The viral graphic has the logo of the Facebook page Nation With Namo. BOOM has previously fact-checked misinformation posted by Nation with Namo.
The text with the photo reads, "World's longest LPG pipeline coming up in UP's Gorakhpur, to be commissioned by 2023. The Kandla-Gorakhpur pipeline is being built at a cost of Rs 10,000 crore. The 2,757-km long pipeline will supply gas to 34 crore households. A game-changing project that will usher in LPG revolution in India!"
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The same photo was shared on Twitter with the misleading claim.
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Free Press Journal in a March 2021 article reporting on work starting on the LPG gas pipeline in Varanasi had used the same photo without any representation tag. (Click here to view an archive)
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral photo showing cranes lower a section of pipe into the ground is from April 8, 2010, near Lubmin, Germany, and not from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh as being claimed.
Search results for a reverse image search showed a New York Times report from April 8, 2010, with the same photo and the headline, "Construction of Contentious Nord Stream Gas Line to Begin." The photo caption credits the photo to Getty Images stating it was taken near Lubmin, Germany.
We also found the original photo on Getty Images taken by the photographer Sean Gallup. The caption read, "A worker shouts commands as cranes lower a section of pipe into the ground for the OPAL pipeline on April 8, 2010 near Lubmin, Germany. The OPAL and NEL pipelines will carry natural gas from Russia arriving through the Nord Stream pipeline from the Baltic Sea across Germany and to other countries in Europe. The Nord Stream project delivers Russian natural gas directly to western Europe and avoids countries in between, such as Poland and Ukraine.
Additionally, Times Of India on February 22, 2019, had reported on the protect Kandla-Gorakhpur LPG pipeline project quoting then Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan who had said that State-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC) is laying an LPG pipeline from Gujarat coast to Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh to cater to the growing demand for cooking gas in the country.
The report further added that IOC plans to import LPG at Kandla in Gujarat and move it through the 1,987-kilometre pipeline to Gorakhpur via Ahmedabad (in Gujarat), Ujjain, Bhopal (in Madhya Pradesh), Kanpur, Allahabad, Varanasi and Lucknow (in Uttar Pradesh). "The pipeline possibly is the longest LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) pipeline in the world," Pradhan had said adding the pipeline would be laid at a cost of Rs 9,000 crore.
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