As even Mr Vijay mentioned in his announcement in the Assembly, the need for a second airport in Chennai, which has emerged as a throbbing industrial hub, cannot be questioned. All that he wanted was that the airport should not come up in Parandur. He wants to look for an alternative site that would entail less loss of agricultural land and reduced adverse impact on people’s livelihoods. — PTI

Dropping the Greenfield airport project, which was to come up at Parandur in Kancheepuram district, like a hot potato could be glad tidings to those who opposed it vehemently for various reasons. But how much the move will impact future industrialisation in Tamil Nadu is not clear.

All those who have been watching the developments around Parandur in the political, social and other spheres since 2022 when a 5,000-acre land parcel was earmarked as the site for Chennai’s ambitious greenfield airport know very well that the decision to scrap the project by chief minister C Joseph Vijay was inspired more by political considerations.

While persistent protests by potential land losers of the 13 revenue villages that raged for months were justified at one level because they were raising concerns like large scale displacement of the rural community, ecological degradation, losing precious natural water bodies and depriving farmers’ livelihoods, the decimation of the scheme without identifying an alternative site could be detrimental to industrial progress.

Potential investors may think twice before coming to the state where government decisions are altered by political expediency because scrapping the Parandur project was an election promise that the TVK fulfilled on coming to power in May. Since it has not been made clear by the new government if the land — 1,700 acres of which has already been acquired — would be left undisturbed to allow the people continue with agriculture, it has given rise to rumours that the land could be utilised for industrial development.

Whatever happens in Parandur after the government has reneged on its plans, the decision might not augur well to establish investor confidence in the government that now comes across as one that could change colours with every election. Because, the Parandur project was basically a DMK brainchild and its killing is attributed more to political expediency than to conflicting economic policies.

As even Mr Vijay mentioned in his announcement in the Assembly, the need for a second airport in Chennai, which has emerged as a throbbing industrial hub, cannot be questioned. All that he wanted was that the airport should not come up in Parandur. He wants to look for an alternative site that would entail less loss of agricultural land and reduced adverse impact on people’s livelihoods.

The alternative site for the second airport, too, must be close to Chennai since access to the city is imperative. The government has taken upon itself the onerous task of identifying a parcel of land that would least affect human settlements and agricultural fields. Wherever the land is identified, there is no guarantee that the people who will lose their houses and agricultural land because of it would not raise a hue and cry and stall the project like the potential land losers of Parandur and surrounding villages did.

It would not be fair on the part of the TVK to say that the people on the new site chosen for constructing the airport should put up with displacement, loss of land and livelihood in the overall interest of the state’s development and industrial growth. Even the Parandur project proposal was born of the same aspiration.

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