Court Directs Surat Bourse to Pay $15m Debt
March 19, 24
(IDEX Online) - The troubled Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) is reported has been given four weeks to repay a $15m debt to a construction company.
The Commercial Court in Surat directed SDB management to provide Ahmedabad-based PSP Projects Limited with a bank guarantee, according to the Free Press Journal.
The bourse, built at a cost of almost $400m, is the world's largest office building, but remains virtually empty since it was officially opened by India's prime minister Narendra Modi last December.
The bourse, with over 7m sq ft of office space has been described as a ghost building. Kiran Gems, described as the world's largest rough diamond manufacturer, moved 1,200 workers to SDB last November, but sent most of them back to Bharat Diamond Bourse, Mumbai, within weeks.
SDB was originally supposed to open in January 2020, according to the SDB website, but that date was repeatedly put back.
We have approached SDB for comment.