‘1.5 lakh more people will get jobs’: PM Modi at the inauguration of Surat Diamond Bourse

“The Surat Diamond Bourse shows the strength of Indian design, designers, materials and the Indian concept… It is an emblem of new India and its strength. I congratulate the entire diamond industry, Surat, and the country for the Surat Diamond Bourse,” Modi added.

VIDEO | PM Narendra Modi inaugurates Surat Diamond Bourse, the world’s largest and modern centre for international diamond and jewellery business. pic.twitter.com/Sg43uf8wUr

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 17, 2023

Built on an area of 66 lakh sq ft at DREAM (Diamond Research and Mercantile) City, a greenfield project designed as a township spread over nearly 700 acre, the bourse, has nine 15-storey interconnected towers, and offices ranging from 300 sq ft to 7,5000 sq ft.

About 27 retail jewellery outlets will be opened while over 4,000 CCTV cameras have been installed at SDB.

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister also inaugurated the newly-constructed terminal building of the Surat International Airport. Designed with its local culture and heritage, the airport is equipped to handle 1,200 domestic passengers and 600 international passengers during peak hours.

#WATCH | Gujarat: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses at the inauguration of Surat Diamond Bourse. pic.twitter.com/3S6zeZZDf7

— ANI (@ANI) December 17, 2023

It also has a provision for further increasing the peak hour capacity to 3,000 passengers with the annual handling capacity increasing to 55 lakh passengers, as per an official statement.

Key features of the Surat Diamond Bourse

The SDB has been built on an area of 66 lakh square feet at DREAM (Diamond Research and Mercantile) city. According to a document by Delhi-based Morphogenesis, which designed the bourse, it is bigger than the biggest office space in the world, The Pentagon in the United States.

Morphogenesis has also designed the BSE tower in GIFT City, Gandhinagar, and the Zydus Corporate Park in Ahmedabad.

The Surat Diamond Bourse has the capacity of about 4,200 offices ranging from 300 square feet to 7,5000 square feet each. The bourse has nine towers, each with ground plus 15 floors.

All diamond-related activities and infrastructure, such as sale of rough diamonds and polished diamonds, diamond manufacturing machineries, software used in diamond planning, diamond certificate firms, lab-grown diamonds, etc. will be available in the bourse.

Apart from this, 27 retail outlets of diamond jewellery will also be opened, for international and national buyers.

Over 4,000 CCTV cameras have been installed at different locations inside and outside the SDB, given the high-security product. A member of the SDB management committee says bio-metric details of employees will be taken, after which they can access the complex with a “wave of their hand”.