This year, Uttarakhand saw extremely heavy rains, leading to a string of natural disasters and loss of life. Floods destroyed markets, towns and homes in Uttarkashi, Pauri, Rudraprayag and several other districts, as well as in the winter capital, Dehradun, where at least 27 people died and many homes and buildings were damaged on September 15 and 16. For Uttarakhand, though, none of this is new – an estimated 3,554 people have lost their lives in natural disasters in the state in the last eight years. It is vital to point out that these are official numbers and the actual casualties, injured and missing are likely to be much higher.Some might think that the key priority for the government of a state and region prone to increasing climate vulnerabilities and disasters would be to increase environmental and ecological security, and that this, ideally, should be the focus of a “range of resilient infrastructure and sustainable development efforts”. The Pushkar Singh Dhami government, however, seems to be having other priorities. Dehradun’s ‘elevated roads’ projectOne particularly concerning example of such priorities is the proposed “elevated roads” project in Dehradun.In summary, the government plans to construct elevated four-lane highways along the city’s two main rivers – Rispana and Bindal. The roads will be 11 and 15 kilometres long, respectively. As per the government’s own estimate, this project will necessitate the demolition of at least 2,600 homes and the felling of at least 3,400 trees. Both of these figures are likely to be severe underestimates, as the majority of the city’s working class slums and the several environmentally sensitive areas lie on the banks of these rivers, and even if the project does not directly destroy a particular home or area, it is likely to cause great damage to surrounding areas as well. To date, despite the fact that this project has been talked about for over four years, the government has not released a single policy statement for those who would be displaced, or the environmental consequences the project may have.Furthermore, decades of construction, encroachments, rubble dumping, garbage dumping and other harmful activities have already severely damaged the two rivers. This project will require the construction of pillars on and along the riverbeds, making significant impacts on the rejuvenation of the rivers and natural water flow.Even independent of the social and environmental devastation these proposed roads would cause, the next point ought to give any observer pause. On September 15 and 16, this year, Dehradun and its peripheral areas of Maldevta, Sahastradhara, Karligad and others experienced widescale devastation due to the flooding of local rivers. One can only imagine how many more lives would have been lost had there been construction pillars and additional rubble on these riverbeds.Protesters carrying a banner against the elevated roads project in Dehradun, on November 11, 2025. Photo: Shankar GopalWhat makes this mammoth infrastructure project particularly concerning is the foreseeable impacts on a variety of environmental issues and social challenges. The major argument provided by the government is that given the increasing number of tourists, it will ease traffic flow as they head to Mussoorie. Even on the face of it, this seems to make little sense.While the elevated corridor would ensure bypassing parts of the city of Dehradun, the car-borne tourist would still exit around the Max Hospital and Sai Mandir area in the city, about 25 kilometres short of his or her final destination. Once the tourist moves ahead, they will finally end up on the two-lane Mussoorie road and contribute greatly to increased vehicle traffic. This will worsen the traffic situation rather than improving it in Mussoorie, which already sees massive long jams every long weekend and tourist season. On another note, the government has itself been concerned about the uncontrollable surge in tourism in Mussoorie, and even introduced a registration system early August this year, presumably to allow it to regulate numbers in future. Meanwhile, as far as traffic in Dehradun is concerned, the government has not made public any studies to justify the claims that the elevated road project will relieve jams within the city. In the last 20 years, the number of private vehicles registered in the city has increased by 13 times, and since these vehicles are mostly traveling within the city, the elevated roads with their limited access points are unlikely to be of much use to most of them.Multiple chances to make a caseThe puzzle deepens when one considers the number of chances the Dhami government had to make its case for these roads. In 2024, a “Comprehensive Mobility Plan” was released for Dehradun, Haridwar and Rishikesh areas, which undertook a detailed study of traffic patterns and possible mitigating measures. However, it did not have a single word about the elevated roads project. The 311-page Dehradun Draft Master Plan 2041 released by the Mussoorie Dehradun Development Authority (MDDA) in April 2023 also did not mention the elevated corridors.In the recent Social Impact Assessment reports, released in August 2025, prepared as part of the land acquisition procedure for the project, there were outlandish claims that the two roads will improve health, reduce inflation, and end migration out of Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, the community data presented in the reports paints another picture altogether.The “public hearings” held on these reports further raised the absurdity. Firstly, it was held with a six-day notice instead of the three weeks notice as required by law, causing the Uttarakhand high court to direct the government to redo the process following a petition by one of the writers of this article, Anoop Nautiyal. Moreover, residents and civil society groups described the hearings as a “sham” marred by threats, and in some cases, outright bullying by representatives of the state’s ruling party, the BJP.ConclusionAll of this leads to the inference that the Uttarakhand government does not have any coherent logic behind the proposal of this project and, as a result, there are consequent suspicions that the real reason has little to do with “sustainable development”. The result – growing public anger. As early as March 2023, a convention of workers’ organisations, social movements and environmentalists had expressed their opposition to the project. Over the subsequent years, workers’ and slum organisations conducted dozens of protests across the city. On September 21, this year, a joint protest brought together workers’ organisations, environmentalists and city based middle class groups. The Congress – the principal opposition party in the state – declared its support for this rally and its opposition to the proposed roads. A protest against the elevated roads project in Dehradun, on September 21, 2025. Photo: By arrangement/Vivek Gupta, MADThis was a marked shift in stand for the party, which had earlier only raised the issue of adequate rehabilitation for those who would be displaced.The anger is not only on the grounds of the project’s negative impacts but also against the massive cost. The government has estimated that the road will cost Rs. 6,250 crores – that is roughly Rs 240 crore per kilometre. In the recent supplementary budget for this year, the government allocated 925 crores for the project, nearly a fifth of the total amount allocated for all state expenditures in the supplementary budget. Spending such an enormous amount of money on a project with unclear benefits seems a serious misallocation of public funds. As a result, concerned stakeholders have been advancing their own proposals for how public funds should be spent.In August, the Doon Samagra Vikas Abhiyan, a city based consortium advocating for sustainable development in Dehradun, ran a city-wide signature campaign asking for these funds to be instead spent on increasing the city’s public transport capacity by 50%, making bus tickets free for women (which would also decrease traffic), running an urban employment guarantee scheme devoted to housing construction, and ensuring better traffic management. The Dehradun Citizens’ Forum has been running an online petition calling for “considering alternatives for resolving traffic congestion”, including public transport and making traffic management more efficient, demands also supported by a new coalition called ‘Say No to the Elevated Road’.In the ultimate analysis, these proposed roads would inflict a devastating blow on the people, environment and beauty of a historic city for reasons that the government does not seem to be interested in openly stating, leave alone justifying. Just two months after the state was hit by a disaster, government officials were back to saying that this project was a “top priority” for them. This leaves us with two questions: Will public concern, questions and anguish be enough to force a turn away from such projects, which are not development but its opposite? Or, will Dehradun’s residents and environment face even more devastation – first from the construction of this project, and then from the floods and disasters that are likely to follow in its wake?Anoop Nautiyal is a social worker, and Shankar Gopal is an activist and researcher with Chetna Andolan. They are both based in Dehradun and affiliated to the Doon Samagra Vikas Abhiyan.