Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday cleared a proposal by the Karnataka Housing Board (KHB) to build a state-of-the-art sports complex, including a cricket stadium with 80,000 seating capacity at Surya City in Bommasandra on the southeastern outskirts of the city.
This will likely be the second largest cricket stadium in the country after the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, which has a seating capacity of 1,32,000.
This comes close on the heels of a stampede at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium during Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) celebrations that killed 11 on June 4. Justice John Michael Cunha Commission that probed into the stampede said the stadium, with a seating capacity of 32,000 and spread over 17 acres, was not suitable for large events and recommended shifting them out to a suitable venue.
The chorus for the stadium to be shifted out to the outskirts of the city, with ample parking space and more seating capacity, has only grown since then.
The KHB has proposed to build a sports centre spread over 100 acres in Surya City, at an estimated cost of ₹1,650 crore from its own funds and no support from the State government, sources said.
