No, BHEL Tiruchirappalli Did Not Make These Bells for Ayodhya’s Ram Temple

An artisan of Andal Moulding Works in Namakkal district confirmed to The Quint that these bells were made by them.

A video showing a truck carrying huge temple bells is being shared to claim that they were manufactured by the government nuclear power company Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) in Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu.

The claim also states that these bells were specifically made for the Ram Temple in Uttar Pradesh's Ayodhya.

(Archives of similar claims can be found here and here.)

Is this true?: No, this claim is false.

• Andal Moulding Works have manufactured the bells in the video in the Namakkal district of Tamil Nadu.

• An artisan of the company confirmed to The Quint that these bells

  were requested to be made by a devotee for Ayodhya's Ram temple.

How did we find out?: We divided the viral video into multiple keyframes and ran a Google reverse image search on some of them.

• We came across the same video posted by Mojo Story on their official YouTube channel on 25 December 2023.

• The title read, "Tamil Nadu To Ayodhya | Amid Chants Of 'Jai Shri Ram,' 42 Temple Bells Embark On Ram Mandir Journey"

• Taking a cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search and came across multiple news reports, notably by The Hindu, The New Indian Express and News18.

• These reports were published in December 2023 and stated that these bells were manufactured at Andal Moulding Works situated at Mohanur Road in Namakkal, Tamil Nadu.

• The reports also mentioned that a devotee from Bengaluru, Rajendra Prasad, had placed an order at Andal Moulding Works for 48 bells for the Ram Temple in November 2023.

• It added that the bells were first placed at the Anjaneyar temple in Namakkal where prayers were offered and then dispatched to Bengaluru.

Andal Moulding Works' statement: The Quint reached out to Andal Moulding Works and spoke to their artisan, Kalidas, who confirmed that the bells in the viral video were made by their family in Namakkal.

• Kalidas also told us they made 48 bells within a month and sent them to the devotee on 14 December 2023 in Bengaluru.

Conclusion: Clearly, the viral video showing temple bells were not manufactured by BHEL in Trichy but by a private company called Andal Moulding Works in Namakkal for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

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