Motera Stadium renamed Narendra Modi Stadium
- EP News Service
- Feb 24, 2021
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AHMEDABAD: Motera Stadium in Ahmedabad, the largest cricket stadium in the world with a seating capacity of 1.32 lakh people and the second largest stadium overall after the Rungrado stadium in Pyongyang, North Korea, has been renamed as the Narendra Modi Stadium after the Prime Minister.
Coincidently,
exactly on the same day February 24, last year Prime Minister had hosted former
US President Donald Trump at the stadium with a mega event called ‘Namaste
Trump’ that was attended by near one lakh people.
The rebuilt
stadium which is a part of the proposed, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Enclave,
was today formally inaugurated by the President of India Ram Nath Kovind in the
presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and his son Jay Shah, who is the
secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
President
Kovind did the bhumi pujan, (laid the foundation stone) for the enclave which will be spread over 220
acres on the Sabarmati river bank in the north east area of Ahmedabad, and will
house several athletics, track and field sports arenas including a football
stadium, a field hockey and tennis stadium, indoor sports halls and swimming
pool.
Shah said
that the stadium was a dream project of the PM, after the completion of the
enclave Ahmedabad will become the city with state-of-the-art sports
infrastructure of international standards.
Addressing
the gathering at the inauguration, President Kovind said that this stadium was conceptualized
by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was Chief Minister of Gujarat and
president of the Gujarat Cricket Association at that time
The enclave
owned by the Gujarat Cricket Association was constructed in 1983 and was first
renovated in 2006 and was a regular venue for international matches in the
city. In 2015, the stadium was closed and demolished before being completely
rebuilt by February 2020, with an estimated cost of ₹800 crore.
It has
hosted matches during the 1987, 1996, and 2011 Cricket World Cups, and as of
2020, the stadium has hosted 12 Tests, 23 ODIs, and 1 T20Is matches.
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