Chennai: Villagers of Ekanapuram panchayat on Saturday passed a resolution for the 10th time, urging the state govt to drop the Parandur Greenfield airport project, at the gram sabha meeting.
The villagers said the project would lead to the loss of water bodies, including three lakes and ponds, land used for agricultural purposes and houses. They passed the resolution against the project for the 10th time as they did not get any solution to the previous resolutions passed in the gram sabha meetings. They added that the villagers would not accept the project in any form.
Many villagers, who gathered for the meeting, also raised slogans against the project.
"We want the chief minister to intervene and drop the Parandur Greenfield airport project and save the people, our farming profession and the village," said G Subramanian, secretary of the Parandur airport opposition joint movement and the Ekanapuram village residents and farmers' welfare association.
The villagers also paid respects to Divya Ganapathi, vice-chairman of Ekanapuram Panchayat, who died recently. She was a key figure in the protest committee against the Parandur airport project.
Ekanapuram is one of 13 villages the govt has planned to acquire land for the airport. The Parandur Greenfield Airport, which will be the city's second airport, was planned at an estimated cost of 32,704 crore. The proposed airport will come up on a 2,171-hectare land across 13 villages, of which 1,386.43 hectares is agricultural land, 577 hectares is water bodies, and 173 hectares is govt/poromboke land. The state govt is likely to float a tender to identify a concessionaire who will develop the airport by early 2025.