Tamil Nadu CM Vijay drops Parandur airport plan, sparks political slugfest

Vijay said Chennai’s existing Meenambakkam airport can handle more passengers, avoiding a new site to protect farmers and limit land damage.

Tamil Nadu chief minister C Joseph Vijay on Monday announced that his government would drop the Parandur airport project, triggering a political slugfest in the state, with the main Opposition Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) slamming the move and staging a walkout from the state assembly.

Vijay said the proposed airport would have impacted farmers and displaced a large number of people. (ANI video grab)

The move comes four years after former CM and DMK chief MK Stalin announced the airport, the second one near Chennai, in August 2022, about 60 km away from the state’s capital.

Speaking in the assembly, the CM said the existing airport at Meenambakkam has capacity to handle 30 million passengers annually and it would be expanded with a new passenger terminal having capacity to handle an additional 20 million passengers annually. He added that facilities will be enhanced and the traffic managed better until the new airport is constructed.

Vijay said the proposed airport would have impacted farmers and displaced a large number of people. “I firmly stood with them against the airport proposed to be set up at Parandur and the surrounding 12 villages,” he said, referring to his Parandur visit in 2025. He had promised that the project will be scrapped if TVK comes to power.

He said the government will select an alternative site that “minimises the damage to agricultural land” and does not affect people’s livelihoods. “A few suitable alternative sites have been selected for the new airport without impacting agricultural lands and residences.”

After the CM’s announcement, DMK demanded a discussion on the issue, which was declined by the Speaker, leading to a walkout from DMK lawmakers. Stalin said the announcement would set the state’s development back by several years.

“Tamil Nadu’s interests cannot be mortgaged for political considerations. An announcement of such far-reaching importance being made under Rule No 110 shutting out any opportunity for debate or even for members to voice their views, is deeply troubling,” the DMK chief said in a statement.

He said that a world-class airport in its capital is not merely desirable, but absolutely essential and added that Parandur was “carefully” selected after evaluating all available alternatives, and the land acquisition process was almost completed.

The (BJP echoed Stalin’s sentiments with its chief spokesperson Narayanan Thirupathy saying the decision is a “reckless and short-sighted decision that will inflict lasting damage on Tamil Nadu’s economy and future growth”. He added that finding an alternate land measuring 5,000-5,700 acres that meets technical, environmental, and connectivity requirements will be extremely difficult.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president B Manickam Tagore said the party supports the decision. “The Airport Authority of India’s feasibility report submitted in March 2022 recorded that Parandur was surrounded by water-bodies with more than a quarter of the site covered by irrigation tanks and 201-hectare man-made lake just 1.4 km from the boundary. The very reasons cited for cancellation that the land is low-lying and waterlogged,” Tagore said.

Meanwhile, the announcement was marked with celebration by residents of Parandur.

There were protests against the project that lasted for more than a year. In January 2025, Vijay joined the protest at Parandur, over a year before his TVK contested its first election.