Surat: The upcoming world-class Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) will get a fillip with the state government earmarking Rs 30 crore fund for the infrastructural development at the Diamond and Research and Mercantile (DREAM) city at Khajod.
After a long delay, the construction of Surat Diamond Bourse kick-started in October 2015 with SDB Diamond Bourse (SDB), a company owned by leading diamantaires, awarding the contract worth Rs 1,575 crore to Ahmedabad-based PSP Projects Limited for constructing the world’s largest diamond bourse at DREAM city. The diamond bourse project, which is worth Rs 2,400 crore, will be constructed on 66 lakh square feet land and the completion deadline has been set for 30 months i.e. the first quarter of 2020. There will be 11 iconic towers of 11-storey housing more than 4,500 diamond office and creating more than 1.50 lakh jobs.
The SDB will have safe deposit vaults, a museum, custom office, money transfer desks, travel desk, retail zone, auction house and a diamond club apart from many other facilities.
SDB chairman Vallabh Patel, who is also chairman of Kiran Gems, told TOI, “It is good news that the state government has earmarked Rs 30 crore for infrastructure development within the DREAM city. This will pave way for faster development of roads, drainage, streetlights etc in the DREAM City. Most of the offices in the bourse have been booked by diamantaires from Surat, while rest belong to Mumbai, Antwerp, Israel, Hong Kong and Dubai.”
SDB project was conceived by Vallabh Patel many years ago. Being the world’s largest diamond cutting and polishing centre, the purpose of the project is to attract buyers from across the world to Surat to plan and execute business transactions at one place.
Industry sources said the SDB is likely to pose a challenge to Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), located in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai, and spread over in about 20 acres with a total constructed area of 2 million square feet and 2,500 offices of various sizes. Surat’s SDB will be much bigger than the BDB. More than 90 per cent of diamonds manufactured in Surat are traded in Mumbai and exported to countries across the world. Once the SDB comes up at Khajod, polished diamonds will be directly traded under one roof.
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