The world’s biggest office space: All you need to know about the Surat Diamond Bourse

What is the diamond bourse?

The Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) has been planned to expand and shift the diamond trading business from Mumbai to Surat, the hub of cutting and polishing diamonds.

The thematic landscaping is based on the ‘panch tatva’ theme, comprising the five elements of nature (air, water, fire, earth, and sky), said a Core Committee member. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Surat’s diamond trading market is located at present in Mahidharpra Hira bazaar and Varachha Hira Bazaar, where traders make transactions standing on the streets with almost no security measures. A major part of the diamond trading, however, happens in Mumbai at Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), which has the amenities for international buyers.

Sources in the diamond industry say Mumbai has a space crunch and office real estate is pricey. Besides, a major chunk of the diamond traded in Mumbai is manufactured in Surat, from where local angadias carry them to Mumbai on trains, taking over 4.5 hours.

Biggest office space in the world

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.

Diamond businesses under one roof

The Surat Diamond Bourse will have over 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 said bio-metric details of employees will be taken, after which they can access the complex with a “wave of their hand”.

Will benefit local businessmen

Sources in the diamond industry said that many diamond merchants of Mumbai have already booked their offices in SDB. However, Surat poses a connectivity issue, unlike Mumbai which has a busy international airport. Surat city has one international flight running between Surat to Sharjah. Traders also cited the absence of seven-star hotels and the prohibition law as some of the reasons inhibiting businessmen from shifting entirely to Surat.

Sevantibhai Shah, who owns Venus Jewels of Surat, said, “The big companies, who already have offices in the Bharat Diamond bourse at BKC, will open offices in Surat too. They will run the business from both the places. But the small players of Surat, who cannot do business in Mumbai, will now get a chance to open their offices in Surat.”

The governing body

The SDB core committee has seven members with Vallabhbhai Lakhani, owner of Kiran Gems, the biggest diamond firm of Surat, as its chairman. Others include Arvind Dhanera, owner of Dhanera diamonds; Govind Dholakia of Shree Ram Krishna Exports; Sevantibhai Shah of Venus Jewels; Diyalbhai Vaghani of Kapu Gems; Lalji Patel of Dharmanandan diamonds; and Mathurbhai Savani, owner of Savani Brothers diamond firm. All of them are major diamond players. Lalji Patel is the diamantaire who bought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s monogrammed suit.

People celebrate the delivery of PM Modi’s suit to Lalji Patel. Harsh Sanghavi, MLA from Majura in Surat and now home minister of Gujarat, can be seen in blue kurta. (Express Photo: by Hanif Malek)

A general committee member of the Surat Diamond Bourse, Dinesh Navadia, said, “All the 4,200 offices have been sold. The SDB will give direct employment to over 1 lakh people.”

Sources in the SDB said that the committee had purchased land from the state government at Rs 627 crore and appointed Morphogenesis to design the project. The construction contract was given to PSP Projects, an Ahmedabad-based firm. The construction started in December 2017 and was finished in just five years, despite the two pandemic years. The total project cost is Rs 3,200 crore.

The thematic landscaping is based on the ‘panch tatva’ theme, comprising the five elements of nature (air, water, fire, earth, and sky), said a Core Committee member.

The foundation stone of the SDB was laid by then Chief Minister of Gujarat and now governor of Uttar Pradesh Anandiben Patel in February 2015.