Tamil Nadu has shortlisted two sites, Cheyyur in Chengalpattu district and Manellore near Gummidipoondi in Tiruvallur district, for Chennai’s second airport, and has written to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) seeking a pre-feasibility study, officials said this week, reviving a project that has been stalled for nearly three decades.
The move comes weeks after the state government shelved its earlier greenfield airport plan at Parandur, which had run into land-acquisition resistance from local farmers and repeated delays over compensation and rehabilitation terms. That project had been in the works for years before it was eventually dropped, prompting officials to restart the search almost from scratch. A team from the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) has already completed an initial round of inspections at both new locations, and AAI is expected to follow up with a detailed technical assessment before recommending a final site.
Officials say the urgency behind the fresh search stems from Chennai’s existing Meenambakkam airport operating close to its practical capacity during peak hours, even as passenger and cargo traffic in the region continues to grow. A second airport has been discussed in various forms since the early 2000s, with earlier proposals also examining sites near Sriperumbudur and Pannur before the process settled on Parandur, and now on Cheyyur and Gummidipoondi.
Cheyyur and Gummidipoondi, each with its own hurdle
Cheyyur, located about 100 km from Chennai’s existing Meenambakkam airport and roughly 40 km from Puducherry airport, is close to Kalpakkam and falls within airspace controlled by the Indian Air Force station at Tambaram, a factor officials say could require Ministry of Defence clearance. The site lies along the East Coast Road corridor, which already sees steady traffic between Chennai and Puducherry, and is within reach of the Chengalpattu-Cheyyur stretch that has seen incremental road-widening work over the past few years.
Manellore, near Gummidipoondi, is around 50 km from the city and sits close to Sriharikota’s airspace, as well as the ecologically sensitive Pulicat zone, raising its own land-availability and environmental questions. The area falls within the broader Gummidipoondi-Ponneri industrial belt, which already hosts several SIPCOT-approved units and has benefited from its position along the Chennai-Kolkata national highway and the Chennai-Gummidipoondi suburban rail line. Officials note that while Manellore offers relatively easier land aggregation than Cheyyur, final clearances will depend on how much of the surrounding wetland and coastal regulation zone area gets excluded from consideration.
AAI study could take months
AAI will evaluate both sites on land availability, airspace conditions, connectivity and environmental requirements before submitting its recommendations. A final decision could take months, and officials estimate construction itself may take five to seven years once a site is confirmed. Work to expand capacity at the existing Chennai airport is continuing in parallel and is not affected by the search for a second site.
Land buyers already watching both belts
For real estate stakeholders, the announcement, even at this early stage, has revived attention on both corridors. Gummidipoondi, part of the Chennai-Andhra Pradesh industrial belt and already home to SIPCOT industrial parks, has for years drawn steady interest from land buyers; residential plots in the area currently trade in the range of ₹1,000-2,300 per sq ft, while larger agricultural and industrial parcels change hands anywhere between ₹30 lakh and ₹90 lakh per acre depending on approvals and location. Cheyyur, positioned along the southern growth corridor near ECR and the Chengalpattu industrial belt, has seen comparatively less speculative activity so far, though brokers expect that to shift if the site moves past the feasibility stage.
Brokers in both belts say enquiries have picked up modestly since the shortlisting was reported, largely from investors who have tracked Chennai’s second-airport story through its earlier iterations at Sriperumbudur and Parandur. Gummidipoondi, given its existing industrial base and rail and highway access, is being viewed as the belt with more immediate upside if the AAI study favours it, while Cheyyur’s appeal is seen as tied more closely to its coastal location and proximity to the IT and industrial hubs along ECR. Similar patterns have played out around other Indian cities where airport announcements, even at the planning stage, have led to a gradual re-rating of land values in the years before construction actually began.
Why analysts say wait, don’t rush
Property analysts caution that greenfield airport announcements typically trigger an early wave of speculative land buying in surrounding villages, followed by a second, more sustained wave of developer and institutional interest once a site is formally confirmed and acquisition begins. Given that Chennai’s second airport has seen multiple false starts, with Parandur being the most recent, the current shortlisting is best read as a signal to track rather than a cue for immediate investment, they said.
