Answering questions in Rajya Sabha – the upper house of Parliament, Gen. (Retd) V.K.Singh – the Minister of State for Civil Aviation informed the house that Parandur has been selected as the site for a greenfield airport for Chennai. This comes as a huge relief for the residents of Chennai who have been battling multiple issues with the current airport.
Parandur or Pannur?
The State government had proposed four sites – Cheyyur and Mamandur in Chengalpattu district, Parandur in Kancheepuram district and Pannur in Tiruvallur district. While Pannur is closer to Chennai as compared to Parandur, after conducting inspection to assess the suitability of the sites, the Airports Authority of India (AAI) found Parandur and Pannur comparatively more feasible for airport development.
Parandur is located about 60kms from the airport and anywhere between an hour and half to two hours away by road. Site selection is one of the first steps and the ride from here would be anything but smooth if the state and central governments don’t work in tandem. The responsibility of land acquisition lies with the state government and to ensure that businesses benefit from a new airport, hopefully the government will invest everything it can to expedite the process.
The airport at Parandur will be less than 20kms from Kanchipuram, the district headquarter and a place known for ancient temples. It will also help serve Vellore – which is a hub for leather goods and manufacturing along with being a base for educational institutes. The new airport will be less than 30 kms from Sriperumbudur – a special economic zone and hub of many multinational manufacturing companies.
Timelines
While the timelines are not known, airport construction in India can swing either ways. On one hand we know how the NOIDA airport is shaping up and on the other is the Navi Mumbai airport which has been in the planning stage for time immemorial. A new airport comes with new opportunities and the state should make the most to this opportunity to build a world class infrastructure project with unmatched connectivity to the city center.
From being known for flooding and falling glasses, the city airport has been under a dire need of a facelift or revamp – which cannot happen due to lack of space for expansion. Chennai has been amongst the four original metro airports in the country but the traffic has seen been taken over by Bengaluru as the city grew on all sides and got a new airport in 2008/9.
The below thread will show the passenger footfall at Chennai
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What’s really insightful is that Bengaluru only represent 75% of international passengers compared to Chennai, while it more than double that for domestic passengers. It would be great to know the main reasons why Chennai has more international passengers. Where are those at Chennai travelling in more numbers than those at Bengaluru?
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The pax profile for Chennai and Bengaluru is a little different when it comes to International. Chennai has a lot of connectivity to ASEAN for VFR traffic. Bengaluru neither has this nor the gulf runs like Kerala, but it has the business traffic – which is current COVID times has not returned in true sense
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