With a seating capacity of 110,000, the new ground at Motera is set to become the world's largest cricket stadium © Getty

In a few months from now, sometime between December 2019 and January 2020, Ahmedabad - Gujarat's financial capital and largest city - will unveil a new state-of-the-art cricket stadium, an ambitious project with a 1.10 lakh capacity that will replace the erstwhile 50,000-capacity Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Stadium constructed in 1982. The colossal structure, a vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will be the world's biggest cricket facility.

Speaking to TOI, Union home minister Amit Shah - also the president of the Gujarat Cricket Association (GCA) - said: "This project is the vision of our Prime Minister. It was his dream that Gujarat, and India, should have a world-class infrastructure in cricket, a game that generates a billion inspirations across the country. We are happy with the way work has progressed and the way the stadium is coming up."

The venue is likely to host the final of the 2023 World Cup.

Work on the project began in 2017 and it took close to nine months to bring down the existing infrastructure. Rajya Sabha MP and GCA vice-president Parimal Nathwani, who oversaw the construction, said, "At first the idea was to put the stadium up for renovation. A good 30 years had passed and it was time to redo the existing infrastructure. We made a presentation and took it to our (then) president Modi (who was GCA president until 2013) but he had a different vision. It was his idea that we should bring down the entire structure and start once again from scratch. His only suggestion was that whatever we do, it should be on a big scale and be one of the best in the world. That's how we began envisaging the project back then (2013 onwards)."

Over the course of three decades, Motera has seen some of Indian cricket's finest moments, like Sunil Gavaskar's 10,000th run in 1987, Kapil Dev's 434th wicket to go past Richard Hadlee in 1994, Sachin Tendulkar's first Test match double in 1999 and India's 2011 World Cup quarterfinal win over Australia.

For Shah, who took over from Modi as GCA president, the stadium became a dream project. "In some months from now, the work will reach its completion and I am sure it will be a moment of pride for India and Indian cricket. The best expertise was sought on planning this entire project. Cricket in India is more than just a sport. It is an emotion," Shah added.

Built over 65 acres on the banks of the river Sabarmati, where the original stadium stood, the new project includes - apart from the main stadium - two additional cricket fields of the same size, a multi-sport facility catering to various other disciplines, a dedicated metro station, Olympic-sized swimming pools and a sports academy. "Our endeavour is to work in the best interests of cricket and ensure that India continues to remain the pinnacle of the game at home and across the world. Indian cricket will continue to grow and move forward," Shah said.

Global design firm Populous, the company that was behind the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), the refurbished infrastructure at the historic Lord's Cricket Ground, the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium, the Allianz Arena, the reworked Wembley and the venue in London that hosted the 2012 Summer Olympics, worked on the Motera project and designed the infrastructure.