At a time when the Centre is likely to give its clearance for the Parandur greenfield airport, Friday marked the 900th day of protest by local people who feel their livelihood would be affected due to the project.
Parandur Green Airport Project Protest Group & Ekanapuram Village Residents and Farmers Welfare Federation urged both the State and Central governments to drop the project, 70 km from Chennai.
Every day in the evening, a few villagers will undertake the protest. There were also protests at various locations since the announcement for the project was made in August 2022 by Chief Minister MK Stalin.
The Federation’s Secretary G Subramanian in a memorandum said that the project would affect 13 villages, including Ekanapuram, Nelvoy, Valathur, Ediayarpakkam, Madapuram and Akkammapuram surrounding Parandur. There are many discrepancies in the data given by Tidco, the Centre and the Government Order.
There are many contradictions among the data mentioned in the Tidco study report for the site, the detailed information given in the site permit by the Centre; statistics given in the decree and the statistics given by the environment permit, the memorandum says.
On Friday, the villagers were heading towards Chennai to protest at the former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi’s memorial. However, they were arrested enroute, according to a member of the federation.
The ₹20,000 crore project is planned in 5,746 acres from 20 villages and to be completed before 2030. In September 2024, the State government issued land acquisition notices for a total of 4445 acres of land in Ekanapuram.
In August, 2024, the Centre granted site clearance approval to Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited (TIDCO), for development of greenfield airport at Parandur.
Site clearance for the project was granted by the Centre based on the recommendations of the Steering Committee comprising representatives from several stakeholder Ministries/Organisations including Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and Safety Regulator,
The proposed airport at Parandur would serve as the second airport near Chennai. It would annually handle 10 crore people; will have two runways, terminal buildings, taxiways, an apron, and a cargo terminal.
The Chennai airport handles over 2 crore people annually. After the ongoing modernisation work, it can handle 3.5 crore people a year for the next seven years. The Ministry of Defence had also granted No Objection for the grant of site clearance.
