The story so far:

Four years after it was announced, one of the most anticipated and controversial projects for Chennai city, the second airport proposed at Parandur, has now been scrapped by the Tamil Nadu government. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay announced in the State Assembly on August 24 that the government would drop the project and look for an alternative site to build Chennai’s second airport. 

Meanwhile, the Airports Authority of India will construct Terminal 5 in the northwestern area of the airport, which passengers will be able to access via an elevated corridor. The existing Chennai airport at Meenambakkam handles 30 million passengers a year. With the ongoing construction of Terminal 3, which will also handle international flights along with Terminal 2, the airport’s capacity will increase to 35 million passengers a year. If Terminal 5 is also completed, the airport’s capacity will rise further to 55 million passengers a year.

When did the search begin?

The plan for a second airport for Chennai dates back to 1998, when the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced that the project was under consideration. The then Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi, wrote to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, requesting him to expedite the project’s clearance. A site 10 km south of Meenambakkam was earmarked for the airport, which was to be developed under the Build-Own-Operate-Transfer model.

A year later, the Centre gave its nod for the project, which was planned to come up on 3,000 acres at an estimated cost of ₹2,000 crore. However, the project did not take off. In 2007, the Tamil Nadu government announced yet again that a second airport would be built, this time over 4,820 acres at Sriperumbudur, with four runways. The site was emerging as a strong industrial and manufacturing corridor, and an airport there was seen as strategically important for the city’s growth. But the project was embroiled in controversy, drawing fierce opposition from political parties and farmerswho objected to their land being taken over for the project. The project too failed to progress, and the following decade saw only the existing airport at Meenambakkam undergo Phase I and Phase II modernisation.

The Tamil Nadu government revived the plan for a second airport in 2022 and announced that it would be built at Parandur in Kancheepuram district. Farmers in Ekanapuram, who faced relocation if the project became a reality, began staging protests.

In early 2025, a year after launching his party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, Mr. Vijay visited the project site at Parandur to show solidarity with the protesting farmers. Keeping his promise, he announced earlier this week that the government would no longer pursue the Parandur airport project.

Why did Parandur face opposition?

After the project was announced in 2022, landowners in several villages in and around Parandur opposed it, saying it would severely affect their livelihoods. Villagers in Ekanapuram also warned that the project could lead to an environmental disaster. Activists echoed these concerns, pointing out that the proposed site is interspersed with several water bodies. They said the construction of the airport could not only inundate nearby villages but also increase the risk of flooding in Chennai.

How far had the project progressed?

Over the last four years, the Tamil Nadu government secured some major approvals required to commence the project, including site clearance and in-principle approval from the Ministry of Civil Aviation.

Of the 5,846 acres required for the project, the government completed the acquisition of 1,802 acres. The State government, however, had not obtained environmental clearance or floated bids to find a private operator.

Why does Chennai need another airport?

Nearly a decade ago, Chennai was the third-busiest airport in the country, after New Delhi and Kolkata. However, privately managed airports in Bengaluru and Hyderabad have recorded significant growth over the past decade and have overtaken Chennai to become the country’s third- and fourth-busiest airports, respectively.

Bengaluru, in particular, has raised the benchmark for passenger experience, while adding direct flights to Paris, Amsterdam, Munich, Vietnam, Tokyo and the Maldives. Chennai airport, however, has yet to secure direct flights to any of these destinations. Passengers have also raised several concerns about the airport in recent years, including delays in opening a second cab pick-up point and completing Terminal 3, among others.

Industry experts have repeatedly stressed that an airport should no longer be viewed merely as transport infrastructure, but as an economic engine that can draw investments, companies and employment for a city and the State.

With Tamil Nadu turning into a $1.5-trillion economy in the next 10 years, world-class airport infrastructure is the need of the hour, experts say.

What happens next?

With the Parandur airport project scrapped, the Tamil Nadu government is back to searching for an ideal site for Chennai’s second airport. However, experts point out that finding a location without farmlands and water bodies in and around Chennai will be far from easy and that one must also look at the availability of airspace before arriving at a location.

Even if the process begins now, the earliest Chennai could get a second airport would be in five to seven years, depending on how quickly the clearances are granted by the Centre.

Published – August 27, 2026 08:30 am IST