Talkatora Indoor Stadium A Forgotten Engineering Landmark

The Talkatora dome is more than concrete and steel—it’s a story of precision, innovation, and youthful ambition, where each three-dimensionally inclined column posed a challenge, and every solution became a legacy. Er. R.K. Gupta, Ex NIDC, Former Chief Engineer, DSIIDC and Vice Chairman MATES (MAIT, MAIMS, MAU, MABS) shares firsthand insights into the design and construction methods used during the 1972–74 project.

This article is a long-overdue recognition of the Talkatora Indoor Stadium as a landmark of Indian civil engineering. Despite being one of Asia’s largest thin shell concrete structures, its legacy remains underappreciated in both academic and public domains. The article seeks to preserve the technical and architectural legacy of the stadium for future generations. It also hopes to inspire young architects and engineers by showcasing India’s early advances in structural innovation and to encourage academic institutions and professional bodies to reintroduce this exceptional project into the national engineering and architectural discourse.