“As I had already assured” — Vijay cancelled the ₹27,400-crore greenfield project in the Assembly, citing displacement of 1,000+ families and loss of agricultural land, and promised alternative sites.
Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay announced in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Monday that the state government would abandon all steps taken to establish a greenfield airport at Parandur in Kancheepuram district, and would instead identify an alternative site causing minimal disruption to farmers and residents.
Making a suo motu statement in the House, Vijay acknowledged that Chennai needed a second airport — the Meenambakkam airport, operated by the Airports Authority of India, handles around 30 million passengers annually and the city's growing scale, rising passenger traffic and expanding cargo requirements made additional capacity necessary. But the decision on where it should go, he said, had to be made differently.
He said the project should not come at the cost of farmers' livelihoods or result in the large-scale displacement of residents. Several alternative sites had already been identified, he said, and would be assessed through scientific studies and technical feasibility assessments before a final location was selected. The government would also work with the AAI to expand capacity at Meenambakkam in the interim.
The Parandur airport was proposed by the previous DMK government in 2022, planned across 5,746 acres at an estimated cost of ₹27,400 crore. Around 2,500 acres of that was private land, with the rest belonging to various government departments. The project involved the displacement of more than 1,000 families from villages in Sriperumbudur and Kancheepuram taluks, the acquisition of substantial agricultural land, and — according to environmentalists — significant impact on the area's lakes and wetlands. By June 2026, approximately 1,700 acres of private land had already been acquired.
The project had faced three years of sustained protest from residents of Ekanapuram and surrounding villages. Vijay recalled visiting Ekanapuram on 20 January 2025 to meet people fighting against land acquisition. He had opposed the project publicly at a Vikravandi public meeting in October 2024, when he was party president, saying the government should reconsider it and find an alternative location where less agricultural land would be affected.
The DMK government had accorded the project special status under the Tamil Nadu Land Consolidation for Special Projects Act, 2023, to facilitate acquisition. Vijay accused the previous government of pursuing the project despite sustained opposition.
“This is the victory of our three-year-long protests,” Ekanapuram resident Janathanan told The News Minute hours after the announcement. “We are extremely happy and are planning celebrations this evening.”
Farmers and activists had opposed the project from 2022 on grounds of land acquisition, livelihoods, displacement and environmental impact, particularly on water bodies and wetlands in the area. “Farmers are the backbone of the country, and these people are fighting to protect their agricultural land,” Vijay told the Assembly.
Opposition to the Parandur airport was among Vijay's most prominent public positions before the election. Today's announcement converts that opposition into a formal government decision, and directly fulfils a commitment he had made to the residents of Ekanapuram and the surrounding villages. It is recorded as kept on the site's manifesto tracker.
A significant question arising from the cancellation is what becomes of the 1,700 acres already acquired from private landowners for the project. Government sources have clarified that there is no proposal to return the acquired land or reverse compensation paid to landowners. Instead, the government is examining alternative industrial uses for the land that would be acceptable to local communities and avoid the environmental harm the airport project would have caused.
The project was planned across around 5,320 acres in 13 villages, of which about 3,750 acres was private land that the revenue department had been working to acquire. The project was overseen by the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO), and the Central government had already granted site clearance approvals.
Members of the Parandur Greenfield Airport Opposition Joint Movement met CM Vijay at the Secretariat in Chennai on August 25 to thank him for the decision. The delegation, led by president G. Subramanian and secretary S. T. Kadhiresan, met alongside Ministers N. Anand, Aadhav Arjuna, R. Nirmalkumar and K. Thennarasu. Subramanian told reporters that residents had passed 16 panchayat resolutions against the project, boycotted seven village sabha meetings and kept children away from government schools as part of their agitation, which lasted more than 1,100 days.
The announcement prompted a walkout by the DMK from the Assembly. Opposition members protested that they had not been given an opportunity to speak on the Parandur issue in the House, and argued that abandoning the project without a confirmed alternative could create significant infrastructure consequences for Chennai's long-term aviation needs.
Parandur Airport Manifesto Kept Farmers Assembly August 24, 2026