₹27,400 Crore Project Scrapped After Years of Farmer Protests – Tamil Nadu Now Searches for an Alternative Site With Less Impact on Agricultural Land
CHENNAI – Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay has fulfilled one of the promises which helped define his political rise, abandoning the proposed second Chennai airport at Parandur after years of resistance from farmers and villagers facing the loss of agricultural land.
The decision kills a project estimated at ₹27,400 crore, roughly US$2.86 billion, for which the previous administration had already obtained civil aviation clearance.
But cancelling an airport does not cancel the reason Chennai needed one.
Tamil Nadu is India’s largest manufacturing state by several measures, accounting for roughly 15 per cent of the country’s factories and manufacturing employment. Chennai and its industrial belt host Hyundai and Renault plants as well as major Apple suppliers including Foxconn and Tata Electronics.
Passenger demand is also growing. The existing Chennai airport handles around 30 million passengers annually and the Government plans to expand its capacity to approximately 55 million through terminal improvements and construction of another terminal.
Vijay says alternative locations for a second airport have already been identified and would have significantly less impact on agricultural land.
Industry wants the decision made quickly.
The Confederation of Indian Industry’s southern leadership has warned that a new airport remains important to the rapid expansion of Tamil Nadu’s manufacturing, logistics and services economy.
The argument has acquired another dimension this week after a new study reportedly questioned whether Tamil Nadu needs another airport immediately, suggesting greater use could first be made of existing aviation infrastructure.
Vijay therefore finds himself confronting the classic difficulty of moving from opposition to government.
It was relatively easy to stand with the farmers and say Parandur should not be built.
It will be considerably harder to find somewhere else to put an international airport.
The farmers of Parandur have won their battle. Tamil Nadu’s aviation problem, however, remains firmly on the runway.
Reuters confirms the Parandur project has been abandoned and that alternative sites with less agricultural impact are under consideration. The project had been estimated at ₹274 billion, while industry has urged the Government to choose the replacement site quickly.
