Enthusiasm for the commencement of the Surat Diamond Bourse is palpable. The committee of the Diamond Bourse extended an invitation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to attend the inauguration ceremony in December. Chief of Gujarat BJP and Member of Parliament, CR Patil, along with diamond traders, also held a meeting with the PM at the Parliament House.
A team of 12 traders also presented a booklet about the Diamond Bourse to Modi, emphasising the need for ensuring international connectivity from Surat. The PM assured them regarding this concern. The team also met the aviation minister, reports said.
Traders associated with the global diamond industry will now have a unified platform for trading at the bourse. Spanning 68 lakh square feet, the Diamond Bourse has become the centre of attraction for being the largest office building in the world, a distinction earlier held by the Pentagon in the US.
Until recently, Surat city was only engaged in polishing raw diamonds, but now it is also heading towards becoming a trading hub. The Diamond Bourse has been constructed at a cost of Rs 2,500 crore. It is estimated that diamond trading worth more than Rs 2 lakh crore will take place annually. Surat’s Diamond Bourse has also become the world’s largest building associated with diamond trade.
The bourse brings together 67,000 professionals under one roof. The 15-storey Diamond Bourse occupies a 35.3-acre site. The building has a central axis that connects it horizontally and vertically across all levels. The Diamond Club sits as a monolithic insert on the site’s northwest, extending from the free-flowing walls of the axis and taking advantage of the frontage for maximum visibility. Sonali Rastogi, Founding Partner at Morphogenesis, is the visionary behind this building.
For construction, locally sourced materials were incorporated. Lakha red granite and Gwalior white sandstone used in the construction have been procured from within a 300 km radius. The stone-working communities from the Deccan Plateau were employed at all stages of construction. The bourse has nine office towers which diverge from the central axis, interspersed with shaded courtyards for rest and recreation that can remain in use year-round.
The office towers are oriented north-south, screening the harsh western sun and enabling 75 per cent of the workspaces to be filled with diffused light throughout the day. The bourse has independent and consolidated functioning for 4,717 offices ranging from 28 sq. mt to over 10,500 sq. mt, making it a city within a city.
Gujarat’s Surat represents the world’s largest community of diamond workers as more than 90 per cent of diamond pieces are cut here. The newly built bourse will prove to be beneficial for the workers as well as traders who commute to the city from long distances to conduct their business. The building brings this vast community together by uniting all activities of cutting, polishing, and trading under one roof.
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