PM Modi inaugurates Surat Diamond Bourse in Gujarat

SURAT: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the Surat Diamond Bourse, the world's largest and modern centre for international diamond and jewellery business.

The Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) building, the world's largest office complex with more than 67 lakh square feet of floor area, is located at Khajod village near Surat city.

It will be a global centre for trading of both rough and polished diamonds as well as jewellery, as per an official statement.

It will comprise a state-of-the-art 'Customs Clearance House' for import and export, jewellery mall for retail jewellery business and facility of international banking and safe vaults, it said.

Several diamond traders, including those based in Mumbai earlier, have already taken possession of their offices, which were allotted by the management after auction, SDB's media convener Dinesh Navadiya said in a statement recently.

The SDB is part of the Diamond Research and Mercantile (DREAM) City.

Former Gujarat chief minister Anandiben Patel in February 2015 performed the ground-breaking ceremony of the SDB and DREAM City project.

With 67 lakh square feet of floor space, the SDB is now the world's largest office building having nearly 4,500 diamond trading offices, a release said.

The mega structure, built on a plot of 35.54 acres inside the DREAM City, has nine towers of 15 floors with office spaces ranging from 300 sq ft to 1 lakh sq ft.