Chennai to get Second Airport at Parandur

Introduction

Thangam Thennarasu, the minister of industries for Tamil Nadu, stated on Saturday, August 20, that the proposed Parandur Greenfield Airport would be built and ready for use by 2028. A 100:325 investment-to-return ratio is anticipated for the project.

According to Minister

Without an airport, Chennai and its surrounding areas would experience stagnant growth by 2028, according to the industries minister. He claims that the Greenfield airport at Parandur serves the needs of the expanding south Indian states and Chennai, Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, and Chengalpattu. A new airport is necessary to connect Chennai with other important cities in the State and the country and benefit from global growth.

He also eased their worries by assuring landowners that they would receive compensation above market value. The nearby villages of Parandur will benefit economically, and their quality of life will improve thanks to the new airport. Twenty thousand crore rupees will be spent on the project. According to The Times of India, the state government has chosen Parandur, 69 kilometers from Chennai, as the site for a new airport constructed on 4,700 acres to accommodate passenger traffic for the ensuing 30 to 35 years.

Compared to Chennai, which placed third in 2008, Bengaluru, fifth before a new airport was built there, has improved. The airport currently in Meenambakkam, Chennai, is now ranked fifth. To protect and manage the water bodies and increase the groundwater level in Parandur, a high-level committee will be established to recommend novel strategies and plans.

The committee’s suggestions will be implemented to end water shortages in the neighborhoods close to Parandur and stop flooding during rainy seasons. Additionally, steps are being taken to ensure that the development of an airport does not negatively impact water bodies.

Water bodies on the project site would be interconnected to meet the needs of agricultural lands. The 360-acre Periya Nelavoy Lake, part of the project area, will be preserved and deepened. CM Stalin stated that to meet the rapidly expanding demand in the civil aviation industry, the currently operational airport at Meenambakkam and the upcoming airport at Parandur would operate concurrently.

Thus, Chennai may soon get two airport systems, just like Delhi (Delhi and Noida Airports), Mumbai (Mumbai and Navi Mumbai Airports), and Goa (Dabolim and Mopa Airports).

Overview

A greenfield airport project called the New Chennai Greenfield International Airport is being considered to serve Chennai, India. It will be constructed close to Parandur in the Tamil Nadu state of India’s Kanchipuram district. Alongside Chennai International Airport, it will operate. Around 5,000 acres will be devoted to the proposed airport. The project will be overseen by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), according to the state government. To build a new airport for Chennai, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) conducted surveys in several nearby areas. Initially, an airport was planned for a location close to Sriperumbudur. However, the government chose to build the new airport in Parandur due to delays and the high cost of the land. Due to the airport’s dedicated cargo terminal, trade from Chennai and surrounding districts will increase, accelerating the State’s economic development.

Four thousand nine hundred seventy acres of land will be used to construct the airport. The drive from the current airport to Parandur, which is about 57 km away and roughly 70 km from Chennai, takes 1 hour and 50 minutes. AAI determined that two sites in Parandur and Pannur were more economically feasible for constructing airports. AAI has sent the pre-feasibility report to TNIDC, which has advised conducting an Obstacle Limitation Surface (OLS) survey and also charting work at the two identified sites. Government of Tamil Nadu confirmed the Parandur site as the location for the development of the greenfield airport after comparing the viability and feasibility, including the presence of habitations and industrial establishments and the cost of land acquisition of both sites.

History

Ananth Kumar, the civil aviation minister at the time, first suggested the project in 1998. He began by outlining the proposal for a new airport as a possible replacement for Chennai’s current airport, which will eventually become constrained and unable to handle increased traffic.

Connectivity

The airport will connect the city via a metro line proposed for the Chennai Metro and the currently under-construction Bangalore-Chennai Expressway via a spur road. The Chennai Suburban System’s Tirumalpur railway station, which is 10 km from the airport, is now the closest.

Location

In Parandur, a small town in the Kanchipuram district, 4,970 acres of land divided among 13 villages will be used to construct the airport. The drive from the current airport to Parandur, which is about 57 km away and roughly 70 km from Chennai, takes 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Protests against land purchases

Because they fear losing their land and livelihood, the villagers are opposed to the project. The airport will cover 13 villages, and the primary industries of the residents of these villages are farming and fishing. Farmers and fishermen have protested, stating that they will only give up their land for the airport project if they are given a plot of land similar to the one they currently own, allowing them to continue farming and fishing for a living.

Status Reports

• Ananth Kumar, who was in charge of civil aviation then, presented Chennai’s new international airport proposal in April 1998.
• Ten kilometers south of Meenambakkam, the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TNIDC) identified a site for the airport that will be constructed using the Build-Own-Operate-and-Transfer (BOOT) Concept.
• The Indian government approved the airport proposal in November 1999.
• November 2000: West of Meenambakkam, in Porur, was where the airport terminal was supposed to be built.
• May 2007: The airport in Sriperumbudur, which will have four runways, will be built on more than 4,800 acres of land, according to the then-chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi.
• March 2012: The airport is scheduled to be built at 20,000 crores as part of Tamil Nadu’s Vision 2023 document.
• The Tamil Nadu government named Padalam, Thiruporur, Pannur, and Parandur as potential airport locations in January 2022.
• March 2022: Parandur and Pannur were chosen as the sites for the proposed airport by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) following the pre-feasibility study and inspection of the four potential areas identified by the Government of Tamil Nadu.
• The location of the airport to be built at Parandur was decided upon and chosen by the Tamil Nadu government in August 2022. By 2028, the airport is anticipated to be finished.