President inaugurates world’s largest stadium in Gujarat

The President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, has inaugurated the world’s largest Stadium at Motera, in Gujarat on February 24, 2021.

Key Facts

• The Motera stadium was later renamed as the Narendra Modi Stadium.
• This stadium has surpassed the Melbourne Cricket Ground and became the largest stadium in the world.
• This stadium is going to make history by hosting the second home pink-ball test match on February 24 between India and England.

Facilities at the Stadium

• The newly built stadium was built by equipping all the modern facilities and technologies which is required for present-day cricket.
• It comprises of four dressing rooms which is required nowadays for hosting twenty-twenty matches back-to-back.
• The stadium was built in over 63 acres.
• It has a seating capacity of 1.10 lakh people surpassing the seating capacity of 90,000 people by the Melbourne stadium.
• It was built at an estimated cost of Rs. 800 crores.
• It was constructed by Larsen & Toubro.
• The stadium also comprises of 76 corporate boxes with a seating capacity of 25 each.
• Apart from that, it has an indoor academy, an Olympic level swimming pool, four dressing rooms for athletes, GCA clubhouse and food courts.
• At the cricket stadium, 11 clay pitches of five black soil and six red soil have been prepared.
• This is the first stadium that uses both coloured clay for the practice and main pitches.
• One of its key features is that, in rain the pitch can be dried in only 30 minutes.

Background

The old Motera Stadium was demolished in the year 2016 which had the sitting capacity of 54,000 spectators. So, the foundation stone for the new cricket stadium was laid down in January 2018. The foundation stone was laid by the Gujarat Cricket Association. Its construction has been completed in two years.

Month: Current Affairs - February, 2021