MUSSOORIE: The state government’s ambitious Dehradun-Mussoorie ropeway project has left the fate of around 82 families living in Sappan Coat hanging in a balance with the civic body officials serving a seven-day eviction notice to them. However, the residents have claimed that they will not budge unless and until the authorities make alternative arrangements for their accommodation.According to sources, around 82 families would be displaced by the 5.5-km-long ropeway project which is estimated to cost the exchequer Rs 285 crore. Several of them, who have been living in the area for years, said that they would not move until the government makes other arrangements for their accommodation. Usha Rani, one of the residents, said, “I have called this place home for 60 years. How can they ask us to leave the place in seven days?” Another resident Godavari Rawat said, “Where are we supposed to go if the government asks us to leave just like that? I have lived here for 45 years. We have all the papers. Why are we being treated like this?”Meanwhile, the municipal authorities have said that there is hardly anything that they can do. Talking to TOI, ML Shah, executive officer of municipal council, said, “The land belongs to the council. We have been asked by the government to hand it over to them and we will have to comply. It is a fact that these houses are illegal constructions and we will have to raze them.”The Uttarakhand government had given its nod to the Dehradun-Mussoorie ropeway project in the last week of August.Manmohan Mall, former president of the municipal council, said, “When there was talk of the ropeway in 2012, the government had promised that they will pay rent to the evicted residents. However, when disaster struck the state in 2013, it said that it can’t afford to pay the rent for more than six months. Even the number of families have gone up now and I hope the government is able to find a suitable solution.”According to sources, the buildings in the area are believed to have come up during the British era, the residents being mainly rickshaw pullers and labourers. A two-storey building constructed for them in the 1960s was brought down in 2012 on the promise of a new one. There were 24 families living in it at that time. The numbers then rose to around 82 over time.