India has built the world’s biggest office in hopes of dominating diamond trade
A new office complex that surpasses the Pentagon in size has officially opened in Surat, cementing the western Indian city’s ambitions to become the world’s diamond capital.
The Surat Diamond Bourse in Gujarat state, which covers a constructed area of 6.7 million square feet (sq ft) or 620,000 square metres (sq m), became the world’s largest office complex when it was completed in July at a cost of 32 billion rupees (S$514.1 million). The US landmark, which opened in 1943, has an area of 6.5 million sq ft.
The complex in Surat will be inaugurated by Narendra Modi, marking another politically symbolic win for the prime minister in his home state as he seeks support for a third term in elections next year. The bourse’s opening will further build on other efforts by Modi’s administration to boost Gujarat economically, for example by cutting red tape to make it more business friendly.
While Mumbai has long been the centre of exports for diamonds in India, Surat, also known as “Diamond City”, dominates in processing of the precious gems, with about 90 per cent of the world’s rough diamonds cut and polished there before they are sold to buyers in places such as the US and China. The new bourse aims to centralise the industry under one roof.
“Surat is a major cutting centre and a diamond exchange is long overdue,” said Eli Izhakoff, honorary president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses. “Dealers from all over the world can do business from a secured and centralised place with confidence.”
The new complex is located inside the Diamond Research and Mercantile City, a business district modelled after the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, or Gift City, another one of Modi’s flagship projects. It has nine 15-storey towers and about 4,700 offices. About 130 offices are already in use, according to Nagjibhai Sakariya, president of the Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB).
