Dehradun:
After hearing nothing from Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, nearly 150 citizens of Dehradun and Mussoorie have carried their opposition to the proposed Rispana–Bindal Elevated Corridor straight to the Uttarakhand government, MLAs and top district officials.
The Dehradun Citizens Forum (DCF) said the same letter—sent to Gadkari in December 2025 and signed by about 150 residents—has now been delivered to the Chief Minister, senior bureaucrats and elected representatives, pressing them to stop the project planned over the Rispana and Bindal riverbeds.
The letter has been sent to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, MoRTH Secretary V. Umashankar, Uttarakhand Chief Secretary Anand Bardhan, PWD Secretary Pankaj Pandey and Dehradun District Magistrate Savin Bansal.
Elected representatives placed on notice include Cabinet Minister and Mussoorie MLA Ganesh Joshi, Dehradun Cantt MLA Savita Kapoor, Raipur MLA Umesh Sharma ‘Kau’, Rajpur Road MLA Khajan Das, Dharampur MLA Vinod Chamoli and Dehradun Mayor Saurabh Thapliyal—putting the citizens’ objections before 11 decision-makers.
The forum said the move does not introduce a new memorandum but pushes the same citizen appeal beyond the Centre, forcing state authorities to own the decision. Over recent months, DCF members have held public meetings, consulted experts and laid out alternative traffic and transport options.
The letter warns that driving a 26-km elevated corridor through the seasonal Rispana and Bindal rivers would load fresh risks onto an already fragile, earthquake-prone city. Citizens point to higher flood danger, land subsidence, blocked groundwater recharge, rising urban heat, degraded air quality and traffic congestion being displaced rather than solved.
Calling the project a misplaced engineering fix, citizens argue that Dehradun needs mass public transport, not flyovers on riverbeds. They demand electric buses, tighter traffic management, walkable and cycle-friendly streets and blue–green river corridors—measures already mapped in the Dehradun Comprehensive Mobility Plan-2024.
The Dehradun Citizens Forum said the intervention rests on evidence, not emotion, and aims to prevent irreversible damage. Residents have urged the state government to halt what they describe as a reckless push to build an elevated corridor on living rivers.
#SaveRispanaBindal #DehradunSpeaks #RiverbedsNotRoads #SustainableMobility
