Protesters attacked by police

Jayalalithaa condemned a “brutal” police attack on about 3,000 affected people when they made a peaceful procession to the Thiruvallar District Collectorate to present a memorandum. She said police, in a “barbaric” lathi charge attack, had chased and beaten people, not even sparing elderlywomen, and at least 20 people had been injured.[2] Jayalalithaa said that during the attack, on 12th August, “women were badly assaulted and people were chased and beaten up by the rampaging policemen” and that her party would support affected farmers and oppose the State government’s “anti-democratic act of grabbing fertile land”.[3] Sirappu Porulathara Mandala Edhirpu Iyakkam (Movement Against SEZs in Tamil Nadu) documented some information on the build up to the police violence on 12th August. A year previously villagers had driven away officials who arrived to survey the land, then, in May 2010, a number of private individuals came to survey the land but were stopped by local people. Officials attempted to support the survey effort with the help of the District Revenue Officer who promised to initiate a dialogue between villagers and the District Collector on 12th August. On the day, villagers went to meet the District Collector, but they were beaten by police and the approximately 20 people who were injured had to be admitted to hospital [4].

Jayalalithaa said her party would stage a massive demonstration against the government’s move to acquire 6,921 acres (2,800.8 hectares) of cultivable poor farmers’ land for the greenfield airport project. Founder of Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) political party, S Ramadoss, also asked the government to give up the project. He said that on Indian Independence Day, 15th August, many village panchayats in Tiruvallur district had adopted resolutions urging the State government to drop the project. Tiruvallur District Collector, TP Rajesh, ordered an RDO (Revenue Divisional Office) inquiry into the 12th August 2010 police lathi-charge on farmers agitating against the airport project. The RDO inquiry was scheduled to be held over the course of three days in the following villages: Vayalur, Vayalur Agaram, Uchimedu and Surakapuram on 7th September, Mummudikuppam, Thirumanikuppam, Kanikapuram and Vasanampatta on 8th September and Thirupandhiyur, Pannur, Bheemapuram and Kottaiyur on 9th September [5].

Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu,Muthuvel Karunanidhi, said the government had asked AAI to acquire the minimum of land for the project, that land acquisition for the airport had not begun and that only soil tests had been conducted, on 4,200 acres in 64 places. He said tests to check technical and economic feasibility of the project had been conducted at Thirumangalam, Molachur, Sogandi, Mambakkam, Sriperumbudur, Kilai, Sirukilai, Vadamangalam and Padicherry in Sriperumbudur taluk, and Kottaiyur, Vayalur, Thirupanthiyur in Thiruvallur taluk. Karunanidhi said the government had not taken a decision on Ramadoss‘s suggestion of shifting the project to a place where people would not be affected. He said “The government has no intention to take over residential places and cultivable lands deliberately. Besides, the government is keen on extending appropriate compensation for land that will be acquired under unavoidable circumstances.”[6].

Opposition acquisition of farmland

Sirappu Porulathara Mandala Edhirpu Iyakkam (Movement Against SEZs in Tamil Nadu) reported in October 2010 that proposed acquisition of 6,921 acres of land for the greenfield airport would affect 2,800 families, approximately 37,000 people in four panchayats in Tiruvallur District and five panchayats in Kanchipuram District. According to news reports six village panchayats – Thirumanaikuppam, Vadamangalam, Vayalur, Thirupandiyur, Kottaiyur and Kiloy – passed resolutions opposing land acquisition for the facility in a gram sabha meeting. Members met with four Agaram villagers who told them that 108 houses farmed 100 acres of land in the village, all of which including the homesteads would be acquired if the airport was located there. The villagers also said that due to the high water table in the area their agriculture was viable and they were not interested in compensation from the government. One

villager cultivating mango orchards and harvest paddy, jasmine and horticulture said they had been paying tax without fail. In addition to agriculture the land earmarked for the airport included 77 lakes, 120 ponds and the project would entail felling 10,000 trees. Also, six schools were in the area so children’s education would be impacted [4]. PT Swaminathan, panchayat chief of one of the affected villages, Vadamangalam in Sriperumbudur, was shocked when, a few months previously, he was told the government wanted to acquire his land for a greenfield airport, saying, “They want to take away land we use for farming…This is the only occupation that we villagers know. If your land is taken away, we lose our livelihood.”  The 29th August 2010 Times of India article stated that Vadamangalam was one of 24 villages – 12 in Sriperumbudur taluk and 12 in neighbouring Tiruvallur taluk – in which the government proposed to acquire land for the project. Villagers were angry and apprehensive because the administration had been keeping quiet about the matter. Swaminathan said, “We discovered this when the people in Tiruvallur taluk protested about it and the media began to cover it. But surveyors for the government have been making regular visits these last few months and marking lands. None of them told us about the airport project or about their plans to seize our land.” The article states that ‘protesting crowds have been swelling in the past few months’. Leader of AIADMK Jayaram Jayalalithaa slammed the government’s move the acquire land as “anti-people” and criticised the government for “acquiring 6,921 aces of agricultural land at a time when agricultural production has been greatly reduced”. (PMK) founder S Ramadoss warned of large-scale displacement of people and insisted the government seek an alternative site [7].

A Ranga Nathan, a retired pilot working on aviation safety, contested the claim that the existing Chennai Airport had reached saturation point regarding passenger numbers. Explaining that the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recommends a minimum distance between international airports and he said that, under the Sriperumbudur plan, “This criterion won’t be met… If Sriperumbudur comes up, Meenambakkam will have to be closed as there will be four airports within a 24-km radius” [8]. In June 2013 a greenfield airport in Sriperumbudur was included in the Prime

Minister’s list of infrastructure targets for 2013-14. AAI Chairman V P Agrawal said that if the State obliges the airport “could be completed even before the one in Navi Mumbai ”explaining that the ground was flat and ideal for constructing an airport. The Prime Minister’s report stated that the new airport would be modeled under a Public-Private-Participation (PPP) arrangement saying “This is ideal for us, but we are also constrained by the fact that there will be opposition.”[9].

Alternative sites and protests against land acquisition in Parandur

In November 2016 Minister of State for Civil

Aviation, Jayant Sinha, said the greenfield airport was still under consideration and the Ministry wanted to ensure it had the land, but thousands of acres would be required, which was proving difficult to procure.[10] In October 2017 Centre for Aviation (CAPA) reported that AAI was ‘exploring four alternative sites for the New Chennai Sriperumbudur Airport development project, including Walajabad, Madhurantakam, Alamathy and Gummidipoondi, following ongoing problems with land procurement in the vicinity of Sriperumbudur’ [11].

The Times of India reported that two alternative locations were being considered after the Sriperumbudur airport plan was scrapped citing high costs of land acquisition. State government officials hinted to the AAI that it would take some time to identify a location as they would prefer a site where there was minimal need to displace people but not too far from the city.[12] In January 2022 The Hindu reported that the State government had identified four possible sites for a second Chennai airport: Padalam, Tiruporur, Pannur and Parandur. On 1st August the State government shortlisted the Parandur site as the location for development of the new airport [13]. Proposals to acquire more than 4,500 acres of land, from 13 villages, triggered protest from local people who had been sceptical about the proposal since surveys were conducted in 2018. The proposed airport site in Parandur is predominantly agricultural land with many water bodies – lakes, ponds, streams and tanks. Villagers opposing the project spoke of worries for their futures as they would lose their houses, farms and livelihoods. Residents turned down an offer of 3.5 times the market value for their land in compensation and at the beginning of September police increased security in anticipation of more protests [14].

In August 2011 AAI informed the State government it was ready to construct a second Chennai airport in Sriperumbudur if 5,000 acres of land were made available. AAI Chairman V P Agrawal said that over three years ago the government identified land at Sriperumbudur and informed the Civil Aviation Ministry. AAI had conducted a study which found that the airport could be built on the land earmarked for the project.[15] In June 2013, with the new airport included in the Prime Minister’s list of infrastructure targets for 2013-14, AAI Chairman V P Agrawal said the project “could be completed even before the one in Navi Mumbai but the proposal had been pending with the State government for the greater part of a year.[9] Investment of Rs20,000 crore (USD 2.5 billion) in a greenfield airport in Sriperumbudur was included in Tamil Nadu Vision 2023 document, released in March 2012. According to this document the airport would be equipped to handle the largest (Airbus A380) aircraft with capacity for 40 million passengers. An aviation park near the airport was anticipated.[16] The Rs20,000 crore cost of the airport stated in March 2012 was a tenfold increase since the Rs2,000 crore stated in November 1999.[15]

A March 2014 article, Runway design and structural design of an airfield pavement, published in the OISR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, examined various factors affecting site selection for a second Chennai airport, including environmental regulations plus meteorological, geological, topographical, drainage and reconnaissance surveys conducted in and around the proposed site. The article considers the technical resources required for airport upgrades and development of new airports. A map of the proposed airport site boundary is shown on page 11. Sriperumbudur is described as a town formerly known as ‘Boothaburi’ and an agrarian community dating back to the first millennia with a rich cultural and religious heritage including several temples.[17]

In September 2015 Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) deputy chief representative for India, Ichiguchi Tomohide, said a second Chennai airport, located on a 4,800 acre site in Sriperumbudur, would form part of the Chennai-Bangalore Industrial Corridor project.[11] JICA’s October 2015 report, Comprehensive Integrated Master Plan for Chennai Bengaluru Industrial Corridor Final Report Regional Comprehensive Plan, contains a graphic of a map of existing and proposed airports, including the Sriperumbudur project. The report noted that the proposed Sriperumbudur location is just 40km from the existing Chennai Airport, a significantly shorter distance than the minimum of 150km specified in regulations pertaining to development of greenfield airports:

‘The prevailing regulations of the Ministry of Civil Aviation prohibit development of additional Greenfield airports within a region of 150 kilometres from an existing airport. The proposed location of Sriperumbudur where an additional airport is expected to be developed to support growing demand in the Chennai region is about 40 kilometres from the existing airport in Chennai. Accordingly, it can be inferred that the Ministry of Civil Aviation regulations would not strictly apply in cases where an existing airport’s capacity faces saturation triggering the need for an alternative airport.’[18]

In November 2016 Minister of State for Civil Aviation, Jayant Sinha, advised that the ministry wanted to ensure land could be provided for the airport and JICA prepared a report stating that an additional Chennai airport was necessary as Chennai Airport’s capacity of 23 million passengers per annum could be surpassed by 2020/21.[11] During a visit to Chennai in September 2017 Sinha said the greenfield airport would not just be an airport, “It will have commercial establishments, business establishments, tourism infrastructure and aviation infrastructure.” In December 2017 the Times of India reported that the Government had announced the airport would be ‘developed as an Aero City’. Following scrapping of the plan for an airport at Sriperumbudur citing high cost of land acquisition, two alternative locations were being considered.[12] On 1st August 2022 it was reported that the State government had shortlisted the Parandur site for development of the greenfield airport.[13]