surat became the international diamond polishing capital years ago but until recently it didnt have a modern diamond business hub now the mammoth surat diamond bourse is gearing up for its first occupantsthe pentagon headquarters of americas defence department is no longer the worlds largest office complex that honour has passed to the brandnew surat diamond bourse sdb that offers 673 lakh sq ft of floor space the same as 6730 apartments of 1000 sq ft each or 8200 indian railways passenger coachesthe sdb is about 55000 sq ft larger than the pentagon which is enough additional space to build four olympicsize swimming poolschild of necessitysurat also known as diamond city now polishes almost 95 of the worlds rough diamonds mined in botswana canada and russia it is the core of indias 24billion gems and jewellery export industry 202223 data and has made crorepatis of several diamantaires who came as poor artisans decades ago its 6000 big and small units employ over 8 lakh people directly or indirectlybut for some years past surats diamantaires had been feeling the need for a modern business hub within the city many of the smaller units still trade from the narrow streets of mahidharpura in old surat and the bigger ones maintain offices in mumbaiwhile the entire work of diamond cutting and polishing takes place in surat we had to travel to mumbai to do business says vallabh patel founder of kiran gems and one of the leading diamantaires in suratpatel had a diamond unit and an office in mumbai but six years ago he shifted his entire operations to surat considering the costs the commute time and the overall standard of living of our employeesjoining hands to buildbecause other surat diamantaires also wanted the same convenience the idea of sdb was born towards the end of 2017 they created a nonprofit company to build the bourse the project members funded the entire cost of rs 3200 crore paying the money in installments depending on the requirement put forth by the development committeethe company bought land from the government in diamond research and mercantile dream city near khajod in surat and work progressed rapidly thereafter despite some pandemicrelated delays the project was completed in 2022 after four years of construction work and the sdb will welcome its first occupants in november this yearquick accessall the buildings on the campus are connected through the atrium spine so you dont need to exit a tower at the ground oor to enter another thus you can move between any two points in the compound in 6 minutes or less there are 131 highspeed elevators managed by a destination control system that gets you to your destination with minimum stoppagessecure entrythe bourse will accommodate up to 65000 employees so an advanced access control system has been installed entry is by contactless biometric identication you wave your hand over a scanner and enter there are 222 such scanners to let in 30 persons per minute for visitors there