L&T Constructs World’s Largest Cricket Stadium in Ahmedabad, India

Built by Larsen & Toubro, the world’s largest cricket stadium in the world, Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, India, will accommodate over 110,000 cricket fans, surpassing its preceding record holder, Melbourne Cricket Ground. After two years of demolition, the new facility is completing construction on the same 63-acre site as its predecessor, Sardar Patel Stadium—which will be its official name after opening.

Motera Stadium responds to the vision of Shri. Narendra Modi, the Honorable Prime Minister of India, doubling the capacity of the previous venue. Despite its size, the stadium was constructed in three years. The new home of the Gujarat Cricket Association includes 76 corporate boxes, four team dressing rooms and facilities, club facilities with three practice grounds, an indoor cricket academy and a 55-room clubhouse, which will have an Olympic-size swimming pool.

Walter P Moore served as the structural engineer for Motera’s roof system. Taking into consideration the fact that the city of Ahmedabad is located in a level 3 seismic zone, the roof needed to be lightweight to reduce seismic demand and develop an economical roof system. Walter P Moore proposed a tensile fabric roof system that is seismically separate from the concrete seating bowl and supported by steel “V” shaped columns. These columns resist gravity and lateral loads resulting from high winds and earthquakes.

Designed by the architect Populous, the Motera Stadium, built to last a century, boasts of several distinctive aspects, such as clusters of LED lights carefully positioned on the roof to avoid the multiple shadows of players on the pitch and an efficient drainage system. It is also water- and energy-efficient green construction.