Vijay drops Parandur airport project. But why?

In a landmark announcement, Tamil Nadu chief minister C. Joseph Vijay on Monday officially scrapped the Parandur Greenfield Airport project which was mooted during the previous DMK regime.

The decision to scrap the project was a major move towards realisation of one of the core pre-election promises made by Vijay.

Reading a statement under rule 110 in the assembly, Vijay said that he is much aware of the role played by an airport in a state’s industrial growth. But he said that an airport at the cost of farm lands and farmers at Parandur was unacceptable. “We had asked the previous government to reconsider this project. Now, after detailed discussions with officials, and as per the promise I made to you, our government is dropping the Parandur airport plan,” Vijay informed the assembly.

Vijay framed the decision within a “pro-development but anti-destruction” doctrine, asserting that the state would not prioritise industrial milestones if they required the fundamental compromise of natural resources or the displacement of multi-generational farming clusters.

Hours after Vijay made the announcement in the assembly, high decibel fire crackers went up in the air at Ekanapuram. People celebrated and hailed Vijay, while the opposition DMK raised questions on the consequences of scrapping the project and on the plans for expansion of the existing airport at Meenambakkam.

Of course, Vijay’s announcement to scrap the project indicates a shift that transforms the state’s role from a facilitator of massive land acquisition to a steward of sustainable development. With this announcement he has effectively closed the chapter on a project of immense technical and financial scale.

The Parandur blueprint

Historically positioned as the linchpin of Tamil Nadu’s industrial strategy, the Parandur Greenfield Airport was designed to catalyse the state’s multi trillion dollar economic ambitions. However, its cancellation signals a definitive shift in the state's governance framework, where environmental, social, and governance mandates now hold equal weight to industrial growth. This reversal highlights a new era of infrastructure planning that seeks to reconcile the demand for global connectivity with the non-negotiable preservation of ecological assets and agrarian livelihoods.

For over 25 years, Tamil Nadu has pursued a second airport for Chennai, a search necessitated by the terminal saturation of the Meenambakkam facility. Locked in by dense urban sprawl, the existing airport faces severe slot congestion and a lack of expansion space, threatening Chennai’s status as a premier industrial hub. Parandur was selected in 2022 as the definitive solution, envisioned to handle the city’s aviation requirements for the next half-century.

Planned at a total estimate cost of ₹27,000 crore, around 5,369 acres of land was envisaged for the project. It was planned in such a way that it could handle 100 million passengers per year with three terminals, two parallel runways and that the construction will be completed in four phases. The project’s strategic momentum peaked in March 2026 when it was designated a special project under the Tamil Nadu Land Consolidation Act. From a policy perspective, this was a critical flashpoint and the designation was widely perceived as a legislative mechanism to fast-track land pooling and master planning by potentially bypassing traditional environmental due diligence and local consultation. This attempt to streamline the acquisition process served as a primary catalyst for political and social pushback, as it intensified fears that the site's ecological fragility would be ignored in favour of industrial expediency.

Opposition by locals

However, people from the villages in and around the proposed site launched protests against the project raising concerns of their fertile farmland being compromised for developmental reasons. Nearly half of the 5,369-acre site consisted of fertile, triple-crop yielding fields. Beyond the loss of agricultural output, this represented the permanent disruption of the socio-economic fabric of the local agrarian economy.

Over a quarter of the area is composed of lakes and natural water bodies. Of particular concern was the Kamban Canal, which serves as a vital artery connecting numerous water bodies across the region. Policy analysts and hydrologists warned that disrupting this canal's natural course would cause a cascading effect on the broader Chennai basin’s drainage network, significantly elevating the risk of catastrophic flooding.

The human element centred on a resolute 1,000-day protest movement by the residents of Ekanapuram and 12 other villages. The project threatened to displace approximately 1,000 families, creating a localised resistance that eventually scaled into a statewide political movement. This grassroots friction effectively blocked the technical progress of the site, eventually finding its voice within the state assembly.

Legislative friction and political dynamics

Vijay’s announcement under Rule 110 in the Assembly, created a huge chaos, particularly regarding the transparency of the decision making process. Vijay utilised Rule 110 to announce the cancellation—a procedural move that allows for ministerial statements but precludes immediate floor debate. This was interpreted by the opposition as a manoeuvre to stifle discussion on the long-term economic consequences of the reversal.

The opposition DMK MLAs staged a walkout, as they weren’t allowed to present their views. The tension reached a peak when minister K.A. Sengottaiyan was addressing a separate issue regarding milk producers. The DMK members attempted to interrupt to demand a debate on the Parandur project. When Speaker J.C.D. Prabhakar ruled that Rule 110 forbade such debate, the opposition exited in protest.

The opposition DMK argues that scrapping the project could cause a major shift in the neighbouring states like Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh gaining in terms of industrial investments. But the question here is how the government is going to return the 2,000 acres that was acquired from the private parties or land owners in the region. TIDCO has already acquired 1,700 acres, while the government owns about 1,674 acres in the area, leaving about 2,500 acres to be acquired. Parandur, though 70 km from Chennai, was chosen for its easy accessibility, as the greenfield Chennai-Bengaluru expressway and Thirumalpur railway station are just a few kilometres away from the proposed site.

While the DMK’s arguments do not have any strength, the scrapping of the project means Vijay is fighting with the ruling BJP in the centre politically and administratively. TVK supporters hail Vijay’s decision as “farmer friendly” and “keeping up the promise.” But beyond all these, the political reasons behind Vijay’s decision assume significance. The Parandur project was one of the pet projects of the central government and the Union cabinet approved this project twice. Recently, Union aviation ministry while replying to a question raised by DMK’s P. Wilson said that they did not receive any communication from the Tamil Nadu government to scrap the project.

Tamil Nadu Congress Committee president Manickam Tagore recently dismissed TVK's “Vijay as PM candidate” rhetoric, saying it is the result of the cult behaviour among Vijay fans. But the TVK seems to be getting ready to squeeze the Congress in Tamil Nadu. The Instagram reels hailing Vijay as PM spreading in north India, the circular against student protests, Vijay’s meeting with Amit Shah and the BJP’s silence against Vijay’s decision to scrap the Parandur project will have to be read with the same wave length.