Kochi Stadium gets ready for IPL

A new cricket stadium with 50,000 capacity is being built in Kochi under Kerala Cricket Association at Eda Kochi which will be ready only in 2012. So it is not for the Indian Premier League 4.

So, all the renovation works are going on in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, near Kaloor junction which has hosted some ODIs and football matches.

The Greater Cochin Development Authority(GDCA) has intended to finish the renovation works in Nehru Stadium for which the government has sanctioned Rs 4 crore 20 lakh to replace the wornout chairs at the venue.

A total of 22,400 pieces, installed when the stadium was built in 1996, need to be replaced and all the replacement works will start out in two weeks time.

Meanwhile, the painting works are being tendered along with the turfing of the surface. The 2.5 lakh square feet ground is being prepared with a drainage facility that will allow water to drain out in 10 minutes. The system covers a circumference of 800 m.

The top layer would consist of a combination of fine gravel, sand and neopit, made of coconut fibres. Layers of sand and gravel would be used to level the field after installing the drainage pipes.

400 truck loads of Sand and 800 of Gravel will be needed to raise the ground by 25 cm.

Just before the IPL 4, The renovated Stadium will face an ODI between India and Australia.