Old Video Peddled As Rush Hour At Mumbai's Borivali Station On Feb 1

A five year old video showing a crowded Mumbai suburban train station is viral claiming it shows crowds jostling to board trains at Borivali station after the city resumed train services for general public.

The video is being shared with a false claim that it shows Borivali station on February 1, the day the Maharashtra government started train services for general public, which earlier was restricted only to essential workers, those authorised to travel and women. The services for the general public were started in fixed time slots to avoid over crowding during the peak hours.

The caption on the video reads, "Borivali Station Today" and "First day after covid Suburban train services open for all commuters....A scene from Borivali today"

FACT CHECK

BOOM ran a reverse image search for a keyframe on the video and found a YouTube link from March 2016 with the same video.

The video uploaded on March 21, 2016 in its description does not identify the railway station but says, "Amazing mumbai local crowd".

We further contacted a Western Railway spokesperson who said, "The video is old and the situation currently is not like this. Even on Feb 1 and during the pandemic, the crowds were controlled with our staff and the Railway police ensuring no over crowding takes place. We have not received reports of such crowding at any railway station."

We also found two tweets by the Railway Police and by the Divisional Railway Manager, Western Railway division clarifying that the video is old.

The Mumbai Suburban railways is currently not available for general public to travel between 7 am and 12 noon and from 4 pm and 9 pm, but available at other times.