The expert committee carried out its inspection despite the protests and will be visiting the area again for other procedures, Kancheepuram Collector Kalaiselvi Mohan said.
The police on Thursday arrested more than 200 villagers from Ekanapuram and other surrounding villages in Tamil Nadu’s Kancheepuram district after they staged a hunger protest against the visit by an IIT-Madras expert committee formed to assess issues related to the proposed greenfield airport at Parandur.
Around 215 villagers were protesting near the B R Ambedkar statue on Thursday, raising slogans against the proposed project when they decided to lay siege to the taluk office in Sriperumbudur. This led the police to arrest them. They were later released on Thursday evening.
“The expert committee has carried out its inspection despite the protests and they will be coming again for other procedures. The residents are now in a position to have discussions with the team so we look forward to that,” Kancheepuram Collector Kalaiselvi Mohan.
Mohan said they had held talks with the residents on two previous occasions about the arrival of the experts but the residents did not agree.
The proposed airport at Parandur is aimed to be built on 4,700 acres of land at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore. The protests against the project have been going on for nearly a year. Though the government has held multiple meetings and offered to provide 3.5 times the market value for land in 13 villages that are likely to be affected by the project, the villagers remain unmoved and continue to protest against the project they fear could affect their livelihood.
