President Ram Nath Kovind today inaugurated the world’s largest cricketing arena at Motera, Sabarmatim, Ahmedabad, in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah and Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju. The refurbished Sardar Patel Stadium at Motera has now been renamed as the Narendra Modi Stadium, signaling a shift of the power centre of BCCI from Mumbai to Ahmedabad.

Continuing with creating a larger than life image of the current Prime Minister, the stadium, which was already christened after the Iron Man of India Sardar Patel has a new name. Home Minister Amit Shah said that the re-christening was done because it was the Prime Minister’s dream project.

Providing more information on the refurbished stadium, the PIB mentions that the dream project of Narendra Modi to build the world’s largest stadium in Ahmedabad, was successfully implemented by Larsen and Toubro, who have also constructed the Sardar Patel Statute of Unity.

What makes the stadium one of it’s kind? Listed below are the credentials and facilities of the Narendra Modi Stadium (erstwhile Sardar Patel stadium):

• The total cost of the project was Rs 800 Crore, making Motera’s 63 acre cricket stadium compound the world’s largest.
• Earlier, Melbourne Cricket Stadium in Australia was the world’s largest and housed a spectator count of 90,000.
• When the old stadium was demolished in 2015, the Motera Stadium had a capacity of 54,000 spectators.
• The Motera stadium, before its demolishing in 2015, was witness to Sunil Gavaskar reaching 10,000 runs mark in Test cricket against Pakistan in the year 1987 and Kapil Dev becoming the highest wicket taker in the world by claiming his 432nd wicket here in 1994 and surpassing Sir Richard Hadlee.
• The stadium houses an Olympic size swimming pool, 76 corporate boxes, indoor academy, four dressing rooms for athletes, food courts and the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) club house as well.
• A total of 11 clay pitches of six red and five black soils have been prepared in the stadium.
• It is the first stadium to use both coloured clay for main and practice pitches.
• In the event of rain, the pitch can be dried in only 30 minutes.
• The state-of-the-art LED floodlights will ensure that the spectators and players areas will not cause discomfort.
• The 360 ​​degree podium concourse at a height of 9 meters simplifies the movement of spectators, as well as provides a uniform view to the spectators from any stand.
• Corporate boxes have a seating capacity of 25 each.
• 150-ton air-cooling tower has been stationed to keep the closed-air portion of the stadium fully air-conditioned.
• Huge dressing rooms have been created for players.
• State-of-the-art gyms have also been set up.
• Special lounge near the players and VIP entrance.
• The autographed bat collection of players from the teams of IPL and World Cup matches played are displayed in the Autograph Gallery at the stadium.
• "Hall of Fame" features photographs of world-renowned cricketers.