The Future Dehradun
By Bharti P Jain
Dehradun’s rivers, the Rispana and Bindal, are not vacant strips of land waiting to be converted into traffic corridors. They are living rivers — the ecological spine of the valley. For centuries, they have recharged our groundwater, cooled our climate, and carried memory and culture alongside their waters. To reduce them to concrete channels beneath elevated roads is not only to erase their identity but to erase our own.
A city that truly aspires to “Smart City” status must recognise that its strength lies in protecting its natural backbone, not tearing it apart for the illusion of faster travel.
Single Project, Two Corridors:
The proposed 26-km elevated road for Dehradun is often spoken of as a single project, but in fact it is split into two separate flyovers — one over the Rispana Corridor, the other over the Bindal. This distinction is critical. Instead of one intervention, the city gets two giant concrete structures cutting across neighbourhoods and river valleys.
The impact is therefore doubled: Two rivers permanently scarred, the valley skyline broken in multiple places, and the neighbourhoods cut off from walkable access.
The whole city bears the cost. What appears as progress on a planning map could, when built, overwhelm Dehradun’s landscape, economy, and identity.
City Scale & Urban Form:
Large metropolitan cities already carry dense skylines, wide arterials, and multiple expressways. In such contexts, elevated corridors blend into the existing built form. Dehradun, however, is different. It is a valley town with mid-rise, low-density character. Its heritage has always been tied to open vistas — rivers, canals, colonial bungalows, and forested ridges.
Having two separate flyovers will fracture this identity. The Bindal and Rispana are not drains, but heritage water systems, once lined with canals, ghats, and trees. By placing columns and decks above them, we bury rivers in shadow, making any future riverfront revival impossible.
“From streams to flyovers, from destination to bypass—Dehradun risks losing its very identity.”
Tourism, Economy & Identity
Dehradun’s economy thrives on its charm — tourism, education, bakeries, cafés, and a walkable lifestyle. Two flyovers instead of one means multiple localities lose their riverfront appeal, skylines, and walkability.
Visitors may increasingly bypass the city, treating it as a transit corridor to Mussoorie, Rishikesh, or Char Dham, instead of a Destination.
The project also risks splitting the city’s economy into two unequal halves:
Above-road economy: fast traffic, malls, chain outlets.
Below-road economy: heritage markets, cafés, small hotels left in shadow.
Winners will be a few big investors along the new corridors, while the city’s traditional core declines. This is not mobility planning — it is economic restructuring by concrete.
Ecological Risk: Rivers as Living Systems
Unlike rocky riverbeds in the plains, the Bindal and Rispana flow over soft, spongy alluvium that absorbs and filters stormwater. These natural beds recharge groundwater and regulate floods. Inserting concrete piers and decks into these systems disturbs the balance, leading to erosion, flooding, and loss of aquifer recharge.
In ecological terms, what appears as an engineering shortcut is in fact the death of living rivers.
Smart Alternatives Exist:
- Dehradun does not need metro-scale flyovers. Smaller, distributed interventions can ease traffic without overwhelming the city.
- We can Improve choke-point junctions with flyovers or underpasses where necessary.
- Develop short bypasses outside congested hubs to divert through traffic.
- Strengthen public transport and shared mobility to reduce dependence on private cars.
- Restore rivers as green spines, with walking and cycling tracks, open ghats, and shaded riverfronts.
Such measures cost less, fit better with the city’s scale, and safeguard heritage.
Citizens’ Appeal:
This is not about opposing progress. It is about choosing the right kind of progress. Dehradun must decide whether to remain a city of hills, rivers, and open skies — or become a valley of concrete columns.
If we silence the rivers under flyovers, we lose not only ecosystems but also our economic vitality and cultural identity. Once buried, rivers cannot be revived; once lost, heritage economies cannot be rebuilt.
The choice before us is stark:
A green, hill-view city that honours its rivers and heritage, or a concrete-view city that sacrifices identity for speed.
Dehradun has long been admired as a valley of schools, orchards, rivers, and culture. Let us ensure that visitors still come for its charm, not just pass through its shadows.
The Rispana and Bindal have given life to this valley for centuries. It is now our responsibility to give them a future.
(Bharti P Jain is Principal Architect at P Jain & Co.; and Convenor, INTACH Dehradun Chapter; and Member of Dehradun Citizens’ Forum.)
