By now, there’s hardly a sports buff who doesn’t know that Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi and US President Mr Donald Trump inaugurated the world’s largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad in Gujarat in the month of February.
Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium is its official nomenclature but it is popular as Motera Stadium. Many also know that India’s largest engineering and construction company, Larsen & Toubro, is the one that has built this magnificent structure for the Gujarat Cricket Association.
But beyond this, there are a lot of interesting facts as regards the construction and unique features of the stadium. Ask Mr M V Satish, Whole-Time Director & Sr EVP - Buildings, Minerals & Metals at L&T, and he can’t stop sharing the tale.
“This has been one of our most challenging projects that involved the erection of 9,000+ precast elements. Some of the precast elements weighed as much as 285 MT,” he says. It has taken the Buildings & Factories arm of L&T Construction 20 million safe man-hours and four years to complete the stadium. The task included demolishing the old stadium that stood at the site.
There are several unique features that distinguishes Motera Stadium from other sports facilities, not only in India but in the world. First among them is that each and every seat in the stadium offers an unhindered view of the field of play, which is something that every sports buff wants.
Next, clusters of LED lights have been placed on the roof of the stadium in such a way that they will not cast multiple shadows of the players during a day-night match or when the sky is overcast during a day match. The stadium also happens to be a water and energy efficient green construction.
No wonder, the L&T CEO & MD, Mr S N Subrahmanyan, is overjoyed by the feat. “The world’s largest stadium is perhaps the best gift to a cricket-crazy nation. As builders of the nation, we are in the business of building the largest, the tallest, the smartest and the most complex of structures, and Motera Stadium will count as one of our most challenging successes,” he sums up.
