Parandur airport: Protest on as experts study feasibility

CHENNAI: Continuing their opposition to the project to construct a new airport after taking over their land, the villagers of Parandur staged a protest on Thursday against the visit of a team of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, who went there to conduct the feasibility study to construct the airport.

The villagers gathered the Eganapuram Ambedkar statue on Thursday morning and protested against the expert panel members’ visit that was scheduled later in the day. When the team was nearing the area, more than 300 villagers started to march towards the entrance of the village to protest in front of them. However, the police personnel who were on the spot arrested all of them and took them to a community hall in Vallakottai.

Later, the experts, accompanied by Collector Kalaiselvi Mohan, came to the field and conducted the study. In the evening, the villagers who were detained by the police were released. Last August, the central government had announced Parandur as the location of the second airport for Chennai. It is proposed to be constructed on about 4,700 acres by acquiring 13 villages in Parandur and surrounding areas.

This announcement came as a shock for all the villagers, who stood to lose their land. This triggered a series of protest, which is continuing every day even now, asking the State government to change the location of the airport.