World's largest hockey stadium completed in record 15 months

The 15th edition of the Men's FIH Hockey World Cup that began on January 13, 2023 was hosted by India in Odisha and the matches were being played at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar and the mint-new 20,000-seat Birsa Munda International Hockey Stadium in Rourkela, built by the technology, engineering, manufacturing and construction conglomerate, Larsen & Toubro.

Inaugurated by Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha, on January 5, 2023, the Birsa Munda stadium is the world's largest hockey stadium, built in a record 15 months meeting all international specifications. Constructed on an area of 50 acres, it has one main playing field, a practice field, practice and fitness centers with state-of-the-art player change rooms, anhydrotherapy center, steam rooms, sauna and more.

A masterpiece in steel

The stadium is made entirely of structural steel, and the stands are completely covered with aluminium composite panelling with an expanded mesh to allow for the passage of natural light into the concourse area that helps air circulation. The gallery area is designed for the spectators to watch matches without any obstruction and all the four stands can be accessed through multiple entrance and exit points for free and smooth movement of spectators. The West Stand is a VIP stand replete with players' change rooms, offices, commentators' rooms, the media centre, a separate media tribune, a CM Box, DSYS rooms, FIH/HI offices, and press conference rooms. A few of the elements have been imported like the Astroturf pitches from Germany, and the sauna system from Spain.

“We are delighted that we have been able to meet the challenge that the Government of Odisha put to us to complete the stadium in time for the World Cup and that we have created a great sports infrastructure in the process,” shared M V Satish, Whole Time Director & Senior Executive Vice President (Buildings), L&T. “The Birsa Munda stadium is a wonderful example of the spirit of 'Atmanirbhar Bharat' with a lot of construction materials and manpower drawn from across the country,” he added.

A continuing tradition of creating defining sports infrastructure

Even as India put it across Spain and hopes for greater glory, the country can celebrate another L&T-built sports landmark that reaffirms the company's deep expertise and wide experience to build defining sports infrastructure that was recently on display at the FIFA World Cup 2022 where seven of the matches were played at the 40,000-seater, open-air, state-of-the-art L&T re-built Ahmed Bin Ali (or Al Rayyan) Stadium.

For cricket infrastructure, L&T re-constructed the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados in 2006 and in time for the 2007 Cricket World Cup. L&T then refurbished the well-known Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai by enhancing the seating capacity to 32,000 that was the venue for the 2011 World Cup Finals that India won. L&T has also built the world's largest cricket stadium, the Narendra Modi Stadium at Motera, Ahmedabad that can seat 110,000 spectators.   

L&T is presently developing the brownfield Kalinga Stadium Infrastructure Expansion Project at Bhubaneswar that will have an Athletic Indoor Complex, an Aquatic Indoor Complex (1,000- seater), a tennis complex, two residential facilities along with external ancillary structures with the additional the mandate to renovate an existing football stadium with gallery chairs. 

In 2006, L&T made ready the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai in a record 260 days in time for the Nehru Gold Cup football tournament. Other stadia constructed by L&T include the Sri Sreenivasa Sports Complex, an indoor sports hall and swimming pool, a Twin Turf Hockey stadium in Hyderabad, with a characteristic tensile roof gallery, designed & built in just 70 days, a 50,000-seater cricket stadium & an indoor sports complex at Puttapurthy, a 35,000-seater sports facility at Guwahati, two stadia in Iraq and the Shree Kanteerva Indoor Stadium, in Bengaluru.

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