Tamil Nadu offers 3.5 times the market value of land for new Chennai airport

The Tamil Nadu government on Friday offered three-and-a-half times the market value for acquiring land in Parandur for building Chennai’s new greenfield airport, besides an alternate land for relocation and a job for one member of each family affected by the project.

The government made the offer to the people of 13 villages in and around Parandur, 65 km from here, in Kanchipuram district off the Chennai-Bengaluru National Highway after they protested against the proposed airport in their villages. Political parties like PMK, VCK, and Naam Tamizhar Katchi have held consultations with people to elicit their opinion on construction of the greenfield airport outside Chennai to meet the needs of ever-growing air passengers.

E V Velu, Thangam Thenarasu, and T M Anbarasan, ministers for Public Works Department, Industries, and MSMEs respectively, held a press conference at the Secretariat here on Friday to hand out an assurance to the villagers that their concerns will be taken care of, and demands will be fulfilled.

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Velu said the government was expediting the work on building a new airport for Chennai as the existing facility in Meenambakkam will achieve its full potential by 2029 and won’t be able to handle the ever-growing passengers. He also said a new airport was “absolutely necessary” to compete with cities like Bengaluru and Hyderabad that boast of swanky airports.

Velu said the three ministers held a consultative meeting with villagers last week during which a majority of them sought adequate compensation in line with the market value, and not with guideline value. Of the 4,500 acres to be acquired for the project, 3,246 acres are private lands while the remaining is owned by the government.

“As many as 1,005 houses will have to be razed down for construction of the airport in 13 villages. We have decided to provide 3.5 times more than the market value as compensation for acquiring their land. We will also allot them an alternate land for their house and assist them financially to build their house,” Velu told the conference.

“We will also provide a job to one member of each family that will be relocated due to the project. The person will get a job based on his/her qualification. Our Chief Minister (M K Stalin) is clear that people who give their land for the airport should be adequately compensated,” he added.

Velu also said the alternate land will be provided near their villages to ensure that they earn their livelihood in the same area. To a question, the minister said the government will work with experts from IIT-Madras to protect the water bodies near-by the proposed airport and ensure that the environment doesn’t get affected in any way.

The minister said the DMK never opposed any road or infrastructure projects while in opposition but had only asked the then AIADMK government to initiate dialogue with people before proceeding with the land acquisition, in response to a question on DMK’s opposition to Salem- Chennai eight-lane express highway.

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Though the number of flights and the daily footfall have increased manifold over the years, the city is bereft of a swanky airport like the ones Bengaluru and Hyderabad boast of. The AAI has been expanding the terminal buildings in the existing airport to cater to the ever-increasing rush but a new airport is long overdue.

The government’s 2006 plan to construct a greenfield airport in Sriperumbudur did not take off due to a slew of factors, including opposition from PMK, which was an ally of the then DMK government. Efforts by the AIADMK government between 2011 and 2021 in this regard also did not fructify.

Besides Chennai, Tamil Nadu has four operational airports – Tiruchirapalli, Madurai, Coimbatore, and Thoothukudi. The state government has now commissioned a study to explore the feasibility of setting up an airport in the industrial city of Hosur located just outside Bengaluru.