Surat, India – Later this year, Surat, the undisputed diamond manufacturing capital of the world, will take its next big step.
On 17 December, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be among those on hand to inaugurate the new complex that will house the Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB), said bourse CEO Mahesh Gadhavi.
The opening will usher in a new era for the city’s diamond industry, one in which a state-of-the-art trading ecosystem will complement the world-class manufacturing infrastructure that India has developed over the past two and a half decades.
Although its high-profile inaugural event is still a few months away, the bourse has already made headlines.
In July, CNN reported that the Surat Diamond Bourse will be the largest office building in the world, surpassing the Pentagon with 7.1 million square feet of floor space.
Taking on that mantle was not the aim of the project when it was conceived; its sheer size is a reflection of industry demand, SDB officials have insisted.
Spread across nine 15-storey office towers linked by a central corridor, the complex will have 4,700 office spaces ranging in size from 300 square metres to more than 1 million square metres, 131 lifts and “ample” open spaces for more informal networking.It is designed to house 67,000 professionals involved in the diamond trade and ancillary services, and cost around $385 million to build.
Despite its mega-proportions, the SDB has been designed to minimise its impact on the environment.
It has achieved the World Green Building Council’s Platinum Standard with features such as rainwater harvesting, solar power generation, recycled water systems and extensive use of local building materials.
Morphogenesis, the architecture firm that designed the bourse, describes it as a structure that integrates high-density commercial architecture with efficient, climate-responsive design.
Gadhavi said the bourse follows the principles of Panchtattva, which is based on the five elements of nature: air, water, fire, earth and sky.
The consultants said these design principles ensure that nearly 50 per cent of the structure is cooled by natural ventilation, due to the directional axis along which the structure is aligned and the separation of towers for better circulation.
Documents also show that solar energy will be used in common areas and a radiant cooling system will allow the building to remain cool during the hottest summer months.
SDB will be one of the landmarks of a new business district called DREAM (the Diamond Research and Mercantile City), envisioned by Indian planners as a ‘smart city’ and one of the few being developed in Gujarat.
So what impact will the new bourse have on India’s diamond industry? There are no easy answers.
Diamantaires leading the new bourse project believe it is an idea whose time has come.
They stress that a second diamond trading hub in Surat, bringing together production and trading activities in close proximity, will promote efficiency and reduce costs for many players, especially smaller companies.
It will also improve the quality of life for those who either have long daily commutes to their jobs from the distant suburbs of Mumbai or have to spend four to five hours travelling between Mumbai and Surat several times a week, they say.
Others, however, point out that Mumbai’s emergence as a diamond trading hub was no accident. When the industry began to make significant strides on the global stage, it offered all the advantages of a modern, international city.
Mumbai is also the country’s de facto financial centre.
The infrastructure to facilitate the global diamond trade was already in place, with a well-connected airport, a network of banks offering trade finance and emerging integrated business hubs such as the Bandra Kurla Complex, home to the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB).
These factors, she says, will influence relocation decisions.
