Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay Monday announced that his government would abandon the proposed Rs 27,000-crore greenfield airport at Parandur, fulfilling one of his earliest and most politically consequential promises even as Chennai confronts an increasingly urgent need for a second airport.

The decision, announced by Vijay in the Assembly, brings to an end — at least at Parandur — a project planned over 5,746 acres in Kanchipuram district and resisted for years by residents of Ekanapuram and surrounding villages.

For Vijay, Parandur was never simply another infrastructure dispute. It was the first major protest arena he entered after launching the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, and the place where he sought to establish his new party on an issue beyond his own celebrity. Visiting Ekanapuram on January 20, 2025, Vijay publicly sided with villagers fighting the acquisition of their homes and farmland and promised that the airport would not be built there.

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On Monday, as chief minister, he returned to that promise. “As I had already assured, the measures undertaken to establish a new airport at Parandur will be abandoned by this government,” Vijay told the House.

The decision is significant because the case for another Chennai airport has hardly disappeared. Meenambakkam airport, Vijay said, currently has capacity for 30 million passengers annually, while Chennai’s expansion as an industrial and commercial centre is increasing demands for passenger and cargo capacity.

“I’m well aware of industrial development and the role airports play in it. I extend it my complete support. But this project should not come up at Parandur,” Vijay recalled telling the protesters in 2025. That distinction — between accepting the need for an airport and rejecting its location — has now become government policy.

Vijay said that after “detailed consultations with senior officials and experts,” the government had identified “a few suitable alternative locations” where a new airport could be developed without affecting agricultural land and residential settlements on the same scale. Technical feasibility studies would follow, and the new site would be finalised soon, he said.

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The announcement resolves one political problem while potentially creating a formidable planning challenge. Parandur had been selected after years of searching for a second airport for Chennai, and industry groups have long warned that abandoning the site would restart a process that could take years. The previous government had already moved substantially ahead with acquisition: of the 5,746 acres required, TIDCO had acquired about 1,700 acres, while roughly 1,500 acres were government land.

But the project carried an extraordinary social and environmental cost for its opponents. Ekanapuram, the centre of the agitation since 2022, faced almost complete displacement — about 605 houses and 900 acres of farmland. Environmental campaigners have also argued that the airport would affect lakes, ponds, irrigation tanks and wetlands that play a role in draining monsoon water.

Vijay framed his decision around precisely those costs. “The location selected for establishing the new airport must be one that does not affect farmers on a large scale and does not require the removal of a large number of residential settlements,” he said.

To bridge the years before an alternative airport can be built, Vijay announced a substantial expansion of the existing Chennai airport. His government will work with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) to develop a new Terminal 5 in the north-western section of Meenambakkam, capable of handling an additional 20 million passengers annually, along with an access road and flyover.

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Once the ongoing Terminal 3 work is completed, Vijay said, Meenambakkam’s annual capacity would rise to 35 million passengers. Terminal 5 would eventually take it to 55 million passengers a year.

“Through this, the services at Chennai airport will be improved, and passenger transportation requirements will be met until the new airport is established,” he said.