How mistranslation by Railways changed train's name to 'Murder Express'
The Railways authorities took swift action and covered the Malayalam word with yellow paint after facing severe criticism on social media.
The nameplate of Hatia- Ernakulam Express was coorected after the social media users flagged the wrong translation. (Photo: X/ @davidalapatt)
The Indian Railways faced flak on social media after a picture of a board on the Hatia- Ernakulam Express having the name "Hatia" translated as "Kolapathakam" (murderer) in Malayalam went viral. A photo of the board went viral on social platforms, prompting widespread criticism.
According to a Railways official, the blunder happened due to confusion over the Hindi word "Hatya", which means "murder".
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The Railways authorities took swift action and covered the Malayalam word with yellow paint.
Notably, Hatia is a place in Ranchi and the Hatia- Ernakulam Express connects the two cities weekly. Posting the photo of the nameplate on microblogging site X, a user wrote, "Shhhh, nobody tell them".
"Too much dependence on Google Translate," wrote another user while commenting on the post.
Blaming the error on confusion over the word 'Hatia' with the Hindi word 'Hatya' (murder), the Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (Sr DCM) of Ranchi Division acknowledged that an error was made during translation. He further said that the wrong nameplate was corrected after the gaffe was brought to light.