Now Reading: Parandur airport project put on hold after four years of protests
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Parandur airport project put on hold after four years of protests
Tamil Nadu has decided to identify an alternative site for Chennai’s proposed second airport at Parandur, putting the project on hold four years after land acquisition began. The state has searched for…
The Story in Brief
Tamil Nadu has decided to identify an alternative site for Chennai’s proposed second airport at Parandur, putting the project on hold four years after land acquisition began. The state has searched for a second airport since 1999, with earlier proposals near Sriperumbudur, Tambaram and Maraimalai Nagar failing over technical, financial or land acquisition hurdles.
The Parandur plan involved acquiring about 5,746 acres across 13 villages at an estimated cost of Rs 29,143 crore. Residents, led by opposition from Ekanapuram, said the project would displace homes, destroy fertile farmland and affect water bodies. The state offered compensation at 3.5 times market value and 285 sq ft houses, but protests continued for more than 1,000 days.
The Indian Opinion
The lazy version of this story is that villagers oppose development, while the opposite version treats any airport plan as automatically harmful. Both miss the central test: whether the government can prove that another site is technically workable, financially credible and less destructive. Compensation cannot by itself answer the loss of an entire settlement. The next proposal should publish its land, water and rehabilitation assessments before acquisition begins. Will the alternative avoid relocating villages, or merely restart the same dispute elsewhere?
Source: newindianexpress.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
