A photo is viral on social media, showing a bus stuck at the narrow mouth of a lane bifurcation on a bridge.
The bridge seen in the photo is of a newly constructed flyover in Mumbai, which connects Mira Bhayandar Road to Golden Nest Circle. The unusual structural design of the flyover — four lanes abruptly narrowing into two — has sparked a debate online besides raising concerns over road safety.
The Kerala Unit of Indian National Congress (@INCKerala) posted the viral photo on X. In a cryptic caption, Congress Kerala blamed corruption and incompetence for the flawed design of the flyover. At the time of this article being written, the post has more than 10 lakh views, and has been re-shared more than 3,000 times. (Archive)
The photo was also posted by X user @PunsterX. (Archive)
Gujarat model of development in Mumbai. pic.twitter.com/XYYxp7ej4D
— PunsterX (@PunsterX) January 28, 2026
The viral photo was also amplified by several other users on X, like @zhao_dashuai, @Indian2410, @PiQSuite, @macroschema and others. (Archives: 1, 2, 3, 4)
Screenshots below:
Fact Check
On running a relevant keyword search on Google, we found several photos of the particular stretch of the flyover seen in the viral image.
We noticed that the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (@MMRDAOfficial), had replied to a video on X, clarifying that the alleged ‘design flaw’ was due to available road width constraints. Moreover, it notified that necessary safety measures had been adopted, including “…rumble strips, delineators, adequate signage, retro-reflective tags, directional boards, and anti-crash barriers.”
The flyover does not “suddenly narrow.” The transition from 4 lanes to 2 lanes is not a design flaw, but is based on available road width constraints, and future network planning.
As per planning, the flyover has been designed with two lanes for Bhayander East and future… https://t.co/hZrsBl9SAR
— MMRDA (@MMRDAOfficial) January 27, 2026
However, we could not locate the viral photo, which showed a bus stuck at the mouth of the lane bifurcation.
On closer inspection, Alt News noticed the logo of Google Gemini at the bottom right corner of the viral photo (circled below).
This indicated that the viral photo might have been artificially generated.
To be sure, we also ran the photo through HIVE’s AI detection tool. According to this, there is an 87.5% likelihood that the viral photo contains AI-generated material.
In conclusion, the viral photo of a bus being stuck on the Mira Bhayandar flyover in Mumbai is artificially generated, though the photo of the bridge showing four lanes narrowing into two is authentic.
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