A video clip of a cruise ship sailing through the narrow Corinth Canal in Greece is being falsely shared as a new initiative by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gujarat, India.
The video shows a ship passing through a narrow canal with a road passing above and is being shared with a false claim it shows a cruise ship connecting Bharuch and Bhavnagar districts in Gujarat and is being hailed as an achievement by Modi in reducing the travel time between the two districts.
BOOM found that while there does exist a passenger cruise service, started in 2017, connecting Ghogha in Bhavnagar and Dahej in Bharuch, the viral video is not from India but from Greece.
In the 59 seconds clip, a cruise ship can be seen sailing through a narrow canal and making its way out of it.
The clip is being shared with the caption when translated reads, "Bhavnagar to Bharuch road has a distance of 350 kilometers, and by sea route it is 32 kilometers, and by this sea route, the Prime Minister has started a service by the ship. The capacity of this ship is 50 trucks, 60 buses, 200 cars at once. 350 motorcycles, 600 people, and time in just half an hour."
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(In Hindi - भावनगर से भरूच रोड की दूरी है 350 किलोमीटर , और समुद्री रास्ते से इसकी दूरी है 32 किलोमीटर, और इसी समुद्री रास्ते से प्रधानमंत्री ने जहाज द्वारा एक सर्विस चालू की है इस जहाज की क्षमता एक बार मे 50 ट्रक, 60 बसे, 200 कारे, 350 मोटरसाइकिल, 600 लोगो को, और समय सिर्फ आधे घंटे में)
BOOM has previously debunked misinformation from this Twitter user. Read here, here.
Viral on Facebook
On searching with the same caption we found that the clip was being shared with the misleading claim.
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FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral clip is from a cruise liner sailing through the Corinth Canal in Greece and not from Gujarat as being claimed. Several Twitter users pointed out that the viral clip is not from Gujarat in India and using that we ran a keyword search which results showed news reports on the incident.
According to a report from October 12, 2019, published in the CNN a 22.5 meter wide cruise liner became the largest boat to pass through Greece's narrow Corinth Canal.
Carrying 929 passengers on board, the Braemar cruise liner narrowly managed to squeeze through the rocky walls of the canal -- which measures a maximum of 25 meters wide at the water's surface -- making it the longest boat to make the journey, cruise company Fred Olsen was quoted as saying according to the CNN Travel report.
We also found a tweet by the cruise company Fred Olsen dated October 9, 2019, which has the same ship as in the viral video.
On comparing the visuals in this video put out by the company on this video dated October 9, 2019, we found that both match and the same ship and location are in both the clips.
BOOM was also able to geolocate the location of the ship in the viral clip using Google Earth which confirmed that it was indeed passing through the Corinth Canal in Greece.
Google Earth comparison with shots in viral video
We then looked for the existing passenger route connecting the ports of Ghogha-Dahej and found that the ro-ro ferry in Gujarat was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October 2017. According to media reports, the ferry service reduced the travel distance between Bharuch and Bhavnagar.
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