Chennai, Aug 25: The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday defended its decision to scrap the Parandur greenfield airport project, accusing the previous DMK regime of acquiring land without an environmental impact assessment or requisite approvals.
Amid heated exchanges in the Assembly over the decision to drop the project, Energy Resources and Law Minister R Nirmal Kumar said the DMK’s claim that 90 per cent of the work had been completed was untrue, noting that the proposed site contained several water bodies and that neither an environmental impact assessment had been conducted nor environmental clearance obtained.
“The total land requirement for the project is 5,846 acres, including 3,774 acres of private patta land, of which 2,681 acres are fertile agricultural land. Of the 1,972 acres of government land, 1,558 acres consist of water bodies and canals. Only about 1,802 acres, or 48 per cent, have been acquired so far,” the minister claimed.
Land acquisition had not commenced in several villages, including Ekanapuram, Karai, Thandalam and Siruvalur, Kumar said, responding to DMK member S Austin’s criticism that abandoning the project after 90 per cent of the work had been completed would cause an economic setback to the state.
The minister said the project had faced delays during the previous AIADMK regime due to the presence of water bodies. Quoting Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay, he said the expansion of Terminals 3 and 5 at Chennai airport would enable it to handle up to 55 million passengers annually.
Kumar also made a remark targeting an alleged real estate beneficiary of the previous DMK regime’s decision to pursue the second airport project, drawing a sharp response from DMK member Thangam Thennarasu, who countered with a “lottery” remark and questioned the rationale behind cancelling the project.
As DMK members stood up and shouted, ruling party members rose in protest, resulting in chaos in the House for some time.
Speaker J C D Prabhakar appealed to the members to maintain calm and assured them that both the ruling and Opposition members would be given an equal opportunity to express their views.
Amid the uproar, former Chief Minister and AIADMK member Edappadi K Palaniswami sought to know what the government proposed to do with the land already acquired for the project.
He asked whether the land would be returned to its original owners and if the compensation already paid would be recovered.
In a major policy shift, Vijay announced on Monday that the Parandur greenfield airport project would be abandoned and that an alternative site would be identified for Chennai’s second airport.
The TVK government, Vijay said, stood firmly with the people and would not allow an airport project to disrupt local communities.
Nearly 55 per cent of the land identified for the project comprised waterbodies and wetlands, he said, making runway operations highly unsafe and increasing the risk of severe flooding in the area.
Maintaining that the government was not opposed to development, the CM said it would actively pursue an alternative location for Chennai’s second airport.
The new site would be selected after detailed technical feasibility studies and would be one where there was no public opposition.
He said the state planned to establish a fifth terminal on the northwestern side of Chennai International Airport at Meenambakkam to augment its annual passenger-handling capacity by another 20 million. Once work on Terminal 3 is completed, the airport would handle 35 million passengers annually.
“The passenger-handling capacity will totally increase to 55 million passengers through these two terminals,” he said.
The announcement immediately drew protests from the Opposition DMK, which claimed that relocating the project would cause significant economic damage to the state.
The Parandur airport project, initiated by the previous DMK regime in 2022 in neighbouring Kancheepuram district, was envisioned at an estimated cost of Rs 27,400 crore.
Local farmers, landowners and villagers, led primarily by residents of Ekanapuram, had staged prolonged protests against the project, joined by environmental advocacy groups.
Earlier, during the exchanges in the House, Public Works Minister Aadhav Arjuna alleged that the Parandur airport project involved a major real estate scam and asserted that the ruling TVK was committed to combating corruption.
Arjuna said the CM had introduced a single-window clearance system to attract industries within 45 to 60 days and that a white paper would be issued in five years to showcase the region’s economic growth.
Farmers and villagers from Ekanapuram and neighbouring areas called on the CM on Tuesday and expressed their gratitude for dropping the airport project.
They honoured Vijay with a shawl as a token of appreciation. (PTI)
