Politics of project cancellations in Tamil Nadu

The Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) government has announced the cancellation of many projects initiated by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), which was in power from 2021 to 2026, including the Parandur Greenfield Airport project, the Kancheepuram New Town development, the Global Sports City plan, the Guindy-Velachery flyover, and nearly 50 temple-related infrastructure projects.A new government cancelling a project announced by the previous government is not new in Tamil Nadu. Records from 1991 show that while the DMK has refrained from publicly cancelling projects when it is voted into power, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) government has often announced the shelving of several DMK-era projects. The TVK is following in the footsteps of the latter.In the case of the DMK, it did not announce discontinuing AIADMK-era schemes such as former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s flagship Cradle Baby Scheme, launched in 1992. Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is on record saying the scheme was not shelved. But the programme was scaled down to the extent that it became ineffective.The TVK government says it is cancelling projects for the right reasons. For instance, the Guindy-Velachery flyover tender was cancelled because of a conflict in alignment with that of the Chennai Metro line. The government declared that the Sports City will be redesigned and improved and hence requires a fresh look. Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay announced in the Assembly on August 24 that the Parandur airport was being cancelled to protect farmers' interests. The extension of the Chennai Metro to Parandur was also put on hold, consequent to the decision to abandon the airport project. To make sure its intentions are not interpreted as playing politics with the development of the State, the TVK government has announced that two new places have been selected for the new greenfield airport project: Manallur near Gummidipoondi, about 50 km north-west of Chennai, and Cheyyur, about 100 km south of Chennai.The temple projects, which included the construction of marriage halls and commercial complexes, were shelved because of court orders and in order not to burden the temples with additional expenditure. The Vijay government also gave up the East Coast Road elevated corridor (from Thiruvanmiyur to Uthandi), alleging that the DMK government had inflated the project cost.There has been an uproar on the part of DMK MLAs and even its president, M.K. Stalin, who characterise such project cancellations as problematic because they affect the competitiveness of the State as well as its ability to add critical facilities periodically.Old patterns repeatingRichardson Wilson, an advocate and son of DMK MP P. Wilson, explained how the DMK fought for one project in the past. The DMK, when in government from 2006 to 2011, decided that Chennai needed an elevated corridor from Maduravoyal in the outskirts of Chennai to the city’s Port, about 21 km away, to facilitate quicker truck movement and help the industries along the Chennai-Bangalore highway. But since it was a massive infrastructure project, only a small part of the work was completed by 2011. The DMK was voted out of power that year. As soon as Jayalalithaa took over as Chief Minister, she decided to scrap the project.The Union government had sanctioned Rs.1,800 crore for the project, which would have eased traffic congestion across Chennai’s arterial roads and kept trucks off city roads. “At that time it would’ve been the longest elevated corridor in India,” he added.Jayalalithaa, pointing out that part of the expressway was aligned along the Cooum River, reasoned that the city would be flooded. It was not a lame excuse. One reason why parts of the old city along the Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS) line get flooded each season is because the Railways had built the tracks over the waterway that conveys water from the north to south of Chennai, the Buckingham Canal.In short, all project cancellations need a reason, and she found one. The story did not end there. “Dr Kalaignar [Chief Minister at that time, M. Karunanidhi] pressed the Union government to go to court,” recalled Richardson. “Sr Adv P. Wilson, then Additional Solicitor General of India, filed a case on behalf of NHAI [National Highways Authority of India]—a rare case where the NHAI sued the government of Tamil Nadu. NHAI won before the Madras High Court. The High Court directed the State government to extend full cooperation to NHAI to complete the project. The AIADMK government moved the Supreme Court [SC]....The SC directed that an expert body analyse the project and give a report on the claims of the AIADMK government,” he added.But the project was effectively stalled. Soon after this, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government lost the 2014 election, and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance came into power. The Union government did not take steps to either stall or speed up the project implementation. There was no progress until 2016. The AIADMK came back to power that year.

A view of Samathuvapuram at Malligaipatti, a scheme that was later cancelled by Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, in Tiruchi district on June 14, 2009. | Photo Credit: R. Ashok Later that year, in December 2016, Jayalalithaa’s death led to the appointment of O. Panneerselvam as Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister. After he assumed power, the decks were cleared for the project. By then, the project had suffered several cost overruns. After the DMK government was voted into office in 2021, it tried to revive the project. Given the vexatious nature of competing claims by the contractors and NHAI, this process itself stretched for a few years. The Union government has now revived the project, and preliminary work is underway at multiple sites.The project cost has ballooned to nearly Rs.6,000 crore, and it is expected to be completed by the end of 2027. This appears to be a very optimistic deadline because one official said that just over 25 per cent of the work on the project was complete. Once the project is ready, Chennai Port’s ability to handle cargo will increase dramatically to over 50 million tonnes.Rebranding schemesThere has also been a trend of rebranding existing schemes once a government demits power. In 2026, the DMK claims that at least eight of its programmes were rebranded as “Vetri” schemes, just as some of the 2006 schemes initiated by the DMK as the “Kalaignar” series of schemes were rebranded as “Amma” schemes. When it comes to scrapping schemes, the 2011 AIADMK government takes the cake. It abandoned the Kalaignar housing scheme, the health insurance scheme, and the free-colour TV scheme, apart from converting the new Assembly and Secretariat project into a hospital. The Jayalalithaa government also tried to convert the Anna Centenary Library into a Children’s Hospital, but a timely intervention by the Madras High Court saved the library.Similarly, in 2001, after Jayalalithaa unseated the DMK government, she cancelled the Uzhavar Sandhai (Farmers’ Market), a scheme for farmers to sell their produce directly to consumers. Though revolutionary in its conception, the scheme did not take off in most parts of the State. She also abandoned the Samathuvapuram scheme, another visionary project which aimed to create model villages with representation from all castes. The idea was that the government built the housing, and those who were allotted houses were from the economically disadvantaged sections.From these examples, a few patterns emerge. First, rebranding is popular: a welfare scheme is rebranded by the party in power to its advantage, after making a few modifications. Second, there is no instance of a major infrastructure project being torn down because the party which came to power did not like it. The only case of entire refurbishment was the rebuilding of the M.G.R. Memorial, where the AIADMK government, in 1991, knocked down the existing “umbrella-like structure” and rebuilt the entire resting place of M.G. Ramachandran.But the larger problem for the State is seen in the decisions in Parandur as well as the Maduravoyal expressway: that of an incoming government deciding to scrap a project merely because of political differences with its predecessor. The stalling of the expressway set the Port’s competitiveness back by a decade. The Parandur decision is cast in the same mould.Also Read | Tamil Nadu decision to cancel Parandur airport project invites praise and criticismAlso Read | Vijay’s Gold Ring scheme raises many questions