MP P Wilson said the Center is yet to receive a formal request from the Tamil Nadu government to change the proposed location for setting up a new airport at Parandur in Kancheepuram district.
Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam spokesperson M Sathya Kumar responded saying his party would take a call at the appropriate time after due process for the ambitious project.
On 2 August 2022, the then Prime Minister, M K Stalin, announced that a second airport for the city would be established at Parandur, about 60 km west of Chennai, at an estimated cost. $20,000 crore with an annual capacity of 10 crore passengers.
Responding to a query raised by Wilson in Parliament, Union Minister of State in the Ministry of Civil Aviation Murlidhar Mohol denied any such requests from the state government.
Speaking about the development of the ambitious project, Wilson said: “To my parliamentary question on whether the new Tamil Nadu government has asked the Center to change the proposed location of the Barandur Chennai Green Airport and the details of the request, if so, Minister Murlidhar Mohol responded firmly, no.”
“Therefore, the Barandur Greenfield Airport project envisioned by the DMK government remains unaffected based on the Union Minister’s response,” Wilson said in a social media post on Tuesday.
M Satya Kumar said, “We have not violated anything procedurally. We are taking a policy shift based on the environment. There are many drylands in Chennai and after doing the feasibility study, we will do it at the appropriate time after following due process.”
Recently, TVK Minister R Nirmal Kumar pointed out that the proposed new airport at Parandur was dropped as it would not be possible to construct runways due to the presence of water bodies.
The land will not be suitable for runways as it consists of water bodies, Energy Resources and Law Minister in the Cabinet led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay said citing comments made to him by Airports Authority of India officials.
Emphasizing that the government is giving top priority to the environment, Kumar stressed, “Look, one project I will tell you – Barandur Airport. When I was looking at the Barandur airport site 3-4 years ago when I met the protest team, the land consisted of 4,000 acres, and the protest team was cultivating paddy and nearly 800-900 acres. There are water bodies on the Barandur land.”
Kumar also said, “When we checked with a few people who were working in civil aviation authorities, they said that they will not be able to develop a runway on this land, as this land is entirely a water body.”
Soon after the state government’s announcement in 2022, residents of Barandur and its neighboring villages staged protests for over a year against the then DMK regime claiming that the green project would affect their livelihoods.
In January 2025, Vijay who was the president of Tamilaga Vetri Kazhagam joined the protest in Parandur and extended his party’s support to the agitating villagers.
