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  • 2 months ago
A political controversy has erupted in Tamil Nadu following the decision to scrap the proposed Parandur airport project near Chennai. The cancellation of the second airport plan has drawn intense scrutiny and criticism across the state's political landscape. Leaders highlighted that Chennai's current airport spans only 1,100 acres and faces infrastructure constraints, unlike larger facilities in Bengaluru and Delhi that can accommodate major wide-body aircraft like the A380. Criticising the withdrawal of the Parandur site, political figures pointed out that identifying a new location, securing central clearances, and completing land acquisition could push the timeline for a second airport to 2036, setting the state's infrastructural progress back by over a decade. While the state government defended the move as a step to protect the rights of local farmers and address environmental concerns, opposition parties have questioned the decision, arguing that delaying a secondary airport impacts connectivity, industrial growth, and the state's economic competitiveness with neighbouring regions.

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00:00That's not all when it comes to the attacks being mounted over Chief Minister Vijay.
00:05Now it's Annamalai who's come out to hit out at Vijay over the Parandur Airport
00:09where Annamalai says and I caught TVK has pushed Chennai back 15 years.
00:15Annamalai slams Vijay for dropping the airport project which he did just a few weeks back.
00:20Chief Minister Vijay scrapped the Parandur Airport project and that in fact had invited a lot of scrutiny for that
00:26matter.
00:27Now this is the latest flashpoint that we see in the political sphere of Tamil Nadu
00:32with Annamalai coming in to amp up the attacks against Chief Minister Vijay.
00:37Let me take this to Apoorva at this given point but before that let's quickly first listen in to what
00:42Annamalai has said.
00:57And when the decision making is so slow and you don't want a second airport.
01:01Chennai has got exactly six connecting cubes that can connect to a plane.
01:05So A380 doesn't want to fly to Chennai because A380 says for me the connecting cube that has to come
01:11and connect
01:11it has to have two different connections.
01:13One for the first class, one for the deep end economy and economy.
01:16And Chennai airport is not designed to have an elevator which can connect like that.
01:20So we go to Dubai, you see two A380s taking off and landed in Bangalore.
01:25So Bangalore is able to push more number of seats as to it.
01:27So people from Chennai, they take a flight to Bangalore, they go to A380 because even a premium seat in
01:32A380
01:33is lesser by about 15,000 rupees than taking a normal premium seat in the same Emirates or Qatar from
01:38Chennai.
01:39So people think like that but the politicians don't think like that and people think ahead and politicians think 10
01:44years behind.
01:45When you say you don't want Parandur, you are pushing the state by another 15 years.
01:49Land notification will take about a year. High notification will take about two years.
01:53Land notification later one year, three years. Land acquisition will take about two and a half, three years, six years.
01:57General government notification, permission, landing, clearance, everything will take about a year and a half.
02:01Building will take about two and a half. Tomorrow morning, you find the second airport for Chennai.
02:05Tomorrow morning, you start to work. We will open that airport in 2036.
02:09By the time Kamil Madhu's CFR will have come down to 0.9, probably will be one of Vijaya's oldest
02:15states in terms of numbers and will not be going anywhere.
02:20On that note, viewers, Apoorva continues with us on the broadcast.
02:24Apoorva, this is another attack coming on against Chief Minister Vijaya as we speak.
02:29This is with regards to the Parandur project that's been cancelled and scrapped by Chief Minister Vijaya.
02:34Take us through what had happened back then with the scrapping of the project and what Annamalai is highlighting in
02:40his attacks in his address against Chief Minister Vijaya.
02:45But in fact, even when the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Joseph C. Vijaya, had gone ahead in the Tamil
02:51Nadu Assembly and announced that there will be no construction of the airport there in Parandur.
02:57And that this was to safeguard the rights of the farmers, the rights of the environmentalists in those regions who
03:03are going ahead.
03:04And talking about that, we saw a lot of backlash that the Chief Minister had received when he had announced
03:09that.
03:09And very much so because we saw the kind of work that had been put in for making of the
03:14Parandur airport there as well.
03:15And now with the Chief Minister having announced, not only is the primary opposition, the DNK going ahead and lashing
03:22out at Chief Minister Vijaya.
03:24But we also see several other parties from the opposition and including the parties in the alliance as well going
03:31ahead and questioning what is the decision of the Chief Minister as well.
03:34And very much on those lines now, you see, you know, Annamalai there, the leader of the We The People
03:41going ahead and lashing out,
03:43saying that this move by the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Joseph C. Vijaya, will push back the kind of
03:48advancement that Chennai needs and Tamil Nadu needs in terms of a second airport right from Chennai airport as well.
03:55Let me remind you, Parandur airport will be somewhere closer to the Chennai Kanshipuram belt region,
04:00which is also one of the major regions where you see the industrial part of the city being developed there
04:07as well.
04:08And which is essentially why then the DNK government had brought in Parandur as that very location where the second
04:14airport closer to Chennai will be coming up.
04:17And now with the Chief Minister announcing that there will not be any airport that will be set up in
04:22Parandur,
04:23but rather a second location that will be still identified further on and then discussed and then later on an
04:29airport to be set up.
04:30That's what Annamalai has also gone on in question.
04:33He said it's almost taken over, you know, five to six years for even identifying and getting the lands and
04:39permits for Parandur airport to be set up.
04:41And now with the Chief Minister going ahead and announcing that they will go ahead and look for new pastures,
04:46greener pastures,
04:46that this will definitely go ahead and set back the development, the kind of advancement that Chennai needs in terms
04:53of a second airport.
04:54We're seeing other states like Bengaluru, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and several others who are raising ahead in terms of secondary
05:01airports
05:02that are being built in their own cities nearby their own capital for a boost of development, a boost of
05:09infrastructure.
05:09But now you see this essentially this statement by Chief Minister, which is stalling this kind of development and infrastructure,
05:16thereby setting back the state and the capital of Chennai back by almost over a decade is what you can
05:22see Annamalai also going ahead and pointing out.
05:25Right, Aburva, thank you for bringing us all of those details into this very story.

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