Tamil Nadu to Compensate Landowners Five Times Market Value for Parandur Airport

The Tamil Nadu government made a significant compensation decision by giving landowners five times the market value of the land to be acquired for the Parandur airport project in the Kancheepuram district. The payment process has started, and payment will begin in March.

The current airport in Chennai is much smaller than the ones in Delhi and Hyderabad and caters to 2 million passengers every year. This figure is likely to increase, but the airport cannot expand much more due to space constraints. The state government has planned a second airport at Parandur, which is estimated to cost Rs 29,150 crore.

Land is needed for 5,320 acres across 20 villages of the region to build the new airport. 3,600 acres are owned by private persons in the patta land. The rest belongs to the government. In February 2024, the first notification for acquiring land was released by the government, mentioning all the land owners and the corresponding areas to be acquired. 6,000 people have already been notified to date regarding acquiring 3,600 acres of private land.

Initially, the government had proposed compensating landowners at 3.4 times the market value. However, following some public outcry and political pressure, including a complaint filed by actor and DMK leader Vijay, the state has now revised the compensation package to five times the market rate.

Many have welcomed this decision, but the opposition parties have condemned how the government was conducting land acquisition. Officials were busy finalizing the amount of compensation to be given to the landowners, and payments were to start beginning in March.