Special meeting in two weeks to decide on in principle approval for Parandur airport: Ram Mohan Naidu

Chennai: Union Civil Aviation Ministry is likely to grant in principle approval for the greenfield airport for Chennai to be built in Parandur in Kanchipuram district at a “special meeting” in New Delhi in the next two weeks.

Once the in principle approval for the ambitious project, which is being opposed by residents of villages where the airport will come up, is granted, the Tamil Nadu government will float bids to choose the concessionaire for building the facility.

The state government has also applied for environmental clearance for the construction of the airport which will be spread over an area of 5,400 acres and built at a cost of about Rs 30,000 crore. Though the government chose Parandur from among four sites surveyed by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in August 2022, the ambitious project has hit a roadblock due to protests by villagers of Ekanapuram, where the runway is likely to come up.

“We have done a thorough consultation and within a week or two we will have a special meeting in Delhi for the in principle approval for which due process will be followed,” Union Civil Aviation Minister K Ram Mohan Naidu told reporters here.

On protests against the airport site, the minister said it is the state government which proposes, selects, and asks for site clearance from the ministry. “We study the feasibility, the operation, navigation, and technicalities…Wherever they show us the land, we conduct the feasibility study and tell them this is good for building an airport,” he added.

The minister’s comments assume significance as the protests against the airport are intensifying. To a specific question, Naidu said the government has no plans to privatise the existing Chennai airport.

Despite promises like compensation to the tune of three times the market value and a government job for one person from the affected families, a section of the villagers are standing their ground that they won’t part with their land.

Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) is also working with stakeholders in preparing the Master Plan for rehabilitating 1,000 families from 13 villages that will be affected by the project.

In August, the Civil Aviation Ministry granted the site approval following which TIDCO applied for an in principle approval for the project.

The new airport will have two runways, multiple terminal buildings, taxiways, aprons, and cargo terminal among other infrastructure. It is being built to handle about 10 crore passengers a year.

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.