Calling it an “irreversible setback” for Tamil Nadu’s growth, DMK chief MK Stalin said the decision by Chief Minister Vijay to scrap Parandur greenfield airport project “will set the State’s development back by several years”, teeing off a fresh face-off between Tamil Nadu’s ruling TVK and the Opposition DMK that lost the election to the first-time Chief Minister’s party just months ago.
Chief Minister Vijay announced in the Assembly on Monday that steps taken to establish a new airport at Parandur will be abandoned to protect agricultural land and livelihoods.
The announcement made today by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu to drop the Parandur International Airport project will set the State’s development back by several years. “Dropping Parandur is not Change. It’s an irreversible setback for Tamil Nadu’s growth. “The site was carefully selected after evaluating all available alternatives, and the land acquisition process has been almost completed. With several stages of preparatory work and approvals already completed, we had drawn up plans to ensure that construction could begin at a rapid pace once we returned to office. “Under the #DravidianModel government, Tamil Nadu became the first port of call for investors. This decision threatens to push the State to the bottom of the table. The Chief Minister’s announcement is nothing short of a jackpot for competing States! Taken without foresight, planning or consultation, this decision by the TVK government is a devastating blow to the employment dreams of Tamil Nadu’s youth,” Stalin wrote on X. Even more critically, a quarter of the entire area is covered by lakes, canals, and water bodies. Building a runway on wetlands was seen as an ecological disaster waiting to happen.
Chief Minister Vijay announced in the Assembly on Monday that steps taken to establish a new airport at Parandur will be abandoned to protect agricultural land and livelihoods in Parandur and 12 surrounding villages. The Civil Aviation Ministry had granted in-principle approval for the Parandur Greenfield Airport in April 2025. Without industrial growth, economic targets of one trillion USD or 1.5 trillion USD are simply impossible to achieve. Since the previous DMK government announced the Rs 27,000-crore project in 2022, local farmers and activists had been protesting relentlessly. Out of the 5,369 acres marked for the project, nearly half (47.6%) is fertile, irrigated agricultural land that yields three crops a year.
Tamil Nadu’s interests cannot be mortgaged for petty political considerations,” Stalin said in a long post on X. If the new government now starts all over again, identifies another location and goes through the entire process before work can even begin, Tamil Nadu’s growth trajectory itself will DROP,” he said.
