Chennai: Criticising govt’s decision to drop the Parandur airport project, opposition parties

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Without industrial growth, Stalin said, economic targets of $1 trillion or $1.5 trillion were impossible to achieve. Because parandur was not an ideal site, meanwhile, TNCC president Manickam Tagore said Congress was supporting govt decision.

“Tamil Nadu’s interests cannot be mortgaged for petty political considerations,’’ he said. “Taken without foresight, planning or consultation, this decision by TVK govt is a devastating blow to the employment dreams of Tamil Nadu’s youth,’’ he said. Tamil Nadu’s position as a leader in multiple sectors including electronics exports and automobiles made a world-class airport in Chennai essential, he said. ‘We The Leaders’ founder K Annamalai said the project could be delayed for another ten years. “Finding an alternative site, getting approvals from Union govt and statutory bodies, issuing tenders, acquiring land, and securing licenses could take at least ten years before the airport becomes operational,” he said. “When you have neither requested Centre for an alternative site nor have any clarity on the new site, what is the need for hastily scrapping the project,” Nainar asked. The site was low-lying and prone to waterlogging, he said. The land acquisition process was also legally flawed, he said, suggesting that Pannur was a better site than Parandur.

“Dropping Parandur is not change. It’s an irreversible setback for Tamil Nadu’s growth,” former CM M K Stalin posted on X. BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran asked Vijay not to stall TN’s development for the sake of his ‘political ego’. AMMK’s T T V Dhinakaran and P R Pandian, president of Coordination Committee of All Farmers’ Associations of Tamil Nadu, welcomed the announcement.

Chennai: Criticising govt’s decision to drop the Parandur airport project, opposition parties and industrial bodies on Monday urged chief minister C Joseph Vijay to reconsider the move.