With 14 truck loads of black cotton soil from Vijaywada, Guwahati is all set to have a new pasture for cricket.
The Rs 100-crore exclusive cricket stadium of the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) in Barsapara ground, with some of the best cricket pitches in the country with a quality outfield, is going to be ready within a year if construction firms Surya Constructions, Klorophyll (India) Sports Turf Technology and Construction Pvt Ltd are to be believed.
The ACA and the construction firms claim the new stadium will be ready for cricket within the next three months and the civil constructions within a year.
“I can guarantee the ground will be ready by winter. We are now working on the top two layers of the surface which will be complete within the next three months,” said Dhiraj Talukdar of Surya Constructions. The same was the assurance from Klorophyll’s, IIT Kharagpur-graduate engineer Bhupinder Singh, who is looking after the ground and pitch work.
“We are applying the technology in which the wickets and the ground will be completely dry and ready to play within 20 minutes even after 50mm rainfall,” the Klorophyll engineer said.
The Australian company’s Indian subsidiary, which has executed projects like golf courses and other turf in different parts of Asia, is laying a cricket ground for the first time under the watchful eyes of Joy Dutta, managing partner of Klorophyll.
Elaborating on the seven pitches, which are being laid, Singh said, “The pitches are almost ready. We are using black cotton soil to make them the best wickets in the country. The grass will germinate soon and the outfield will also be ready with grass within the next couple of months.”
Not only were 14 truckloads of black cotton soil brought in from Vijaywada for the pitches, the city’s snake population also grew by a cobra and a python who crawled on the trucks along with the soil. About 20 more truckloads would be brought in the next few months for the six practice wickets outside the stadium and their maintenance.
The black cotton soil is used for the top 300mm in the 810 square metre pitch. This is the first time black soil is being used in any pitch in Assam. A particular clay soil from Rampur near here is usually used for pitches across the state. Black cotton soil contains the maximum amount of clay in it, which prevents the wickets from breaking and makes them bouncy. For a good wicket, the clay content in the soil for the top layer should be between 50 to 70 per cent. The other components include fine, medium and coarse sand and other ingredients, explained BCCI east zone curator Ratul Das.
Klorophyll will be taking care of the ground and pitches for three years after completion.
As for the ground, the ACA engineer in-charge of the site, Tuniram Mili, said, “It is a five-layer one with 100mm of water-bound macadam over a 100mm of granular sub-base. The 400mm base course, which houses a 8km network of sub-soil drainage, is separated from the upper layers of gravel and sand with geo textile material in order to check choking of the perforated geo tubes used for the drainage. This technology is applied in order to ensure that there cannot be any water-logging.”
Endorsing Singh and Mili, Das said, “I can guarantee that this ground and its wickets will be the best in India and will be one which will be compatible for any format of the game.”
