The Repairs, Renovation, Waterproofing of 50 Years Old “Wankhede Cricket Stadium” with Reduction of Carbon Foot Print of Over 10,00,000 Kgs of Co2

Wankhede Stadium is an iconic structure situated by Arabian Sea built in 1974 for the capacity of 39000 cricket loving spectators. Cricket is a religion in India like soccer is in many other countries. Several memorable matches and corresponding full houses is the common feature of ‘Wankhede Stadium’ over past five decades. Like any other stadium, frenzy of full house spectators occasionally and perennial aggressive saline weather resulted in heavy damage of the properties which include RCC walls, slabs, flooring, washrooms, steel structures and all the chairs. This rendered the stadium unusable. Excessive leakages through horizontal and vertical RCC surfaces in heavily saline and high rains conditions further affected this huge structure. Indian Premier League(IPL) matches are the annual big event of two months which is looked forward to by the entire country and other cricket playing countries. Many international players and visitors flock to be part of the excitement. Wankhede Stadium was the venue for the IPL in the year 2022 and the audit done beforehands brought out all the points mentioned above to be looked into on priority without any delay in the interest of the health of a structure and successfully hosting the IPL. Time was very limited for the operation. The renovation process had to conclude into world class facility and hence the activity was taken in a planned manner with high technological inputs to take care of leakages of basements, leakages of external walls, anti carbonation coatings and above all restoration of about 38000 polyethylene chairs which could not be discarded(despite the inclination and availability of funds) due to shortage of time. Novel technology was used of high adhesion ultra violet resistant Long Chain Nylon Reticulant(LCNR) special coating. These were significant steps in conservation of the stadium. The entire operation resulted in high reduction of carbon foot print. This case study sets an example to every such stadium undergoing restoration and renovation anywhere in the world to follow suit and be sustainable with ‘green approach’. The substantial reduction in the project cost is another major feature wherein major capital cost to replace the polyethylene chairs was totally avoided.