The Kancheepuram police on Monday, February 26, detained hundreds of farmers who staged a protest against land acquisition for the Parandur airport project in Tamil Nadu. The farmers raised slogans and demanded the state government to drop the proposal. The protest comes two days after the government issued a notification to acquire land in Podavur village, which was one of the 13 villages selected for the project on February 24.
Residents and farmers from each village marched towards the Special District Revenue Officer and New Green Field Airport Scheme, Zone - III office to express their disapproval for the new airport. The police officials detained them and lodged them in a marriage hall near Sunguvarchatiram in the district. They went on to stage a hunger strike inside the marriage hall.
It is to be recalled that the residents were against the project ever since it was announced in 2022 despite the government offering them a compensation thrice the price of the land.
Following the incident, the state government received severe backlash from civil societies and environmentalists. Environmentalists had warned that the project may lead to an ecological disaster. However, the government decided not to stall the project.
Read: Chennai’s second airport at Parandur will be an ecological disaster, say activists
The Tamil Nadu Department of Industries, Investment Promotion, and Commerce issued a preliminary notification on Saturday, February 24, to acquire land for the greenfield airport in the Parandur locality of Kancheepuram district. The notification has been issued under section 3(2) of the Tamil Nadu Acquisition of Land for Industrial Purpose Act, 1997. The notification by the Special District Revenue Officer called for objections to the acquisition of lands to be filed within 30 days.
Parandur and 13 villages are located in Kancheepuram district, nearly 70 km away from Chennai. The journey to reach the new airport would take approximately two and a half hours. To reduce the traveling time, the state government undertook a metro connectivity project. The Chennai Metro Rail had submitted a study to the state government in January and proposed to create connectivity from Poonamallee to Parandur via Thirumazhisai and Sriperumbudur at an estimated cost of Rs 10,712 crore to cover the total length of 42.63 km with 19 stations.