"1,500 New Offices to Open at Surat Bourse"

(IDEX Online) - Surat's near-empty diamond bourse is set for influx of traders, according to an official for the state government of Gujurat.

Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) - officially the world's largest office complex - was opened by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2023.

But it has struggled to attract traders and even now, over two years later, fewer than 250 of its 4,700 offices are actually operational.

But on a visit to the bourse (4 April), Harsh Sanghavi, Gujarat's deputy chief minister, said a total of 1,500 offices would be operational within the next year.

"Surat Diamond Bourse will be the biggest hub of diamonds in the next two years. Traders have started opening offices here in a very short time. A total of 1,500 are expected to become operational within the next year, with 500 new offices set to open in just the next five months," he said.

He also predicted that SDB would, within two years, become the world's biggest hub for chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamonds.

There are also plans for rough diamond traders to operate from SDB within the next few months.

All offices at SDB have reportedly been sold, as speculative or investment purchases rather than active trading spaces, but the overwhelming majority remain vacant as traders delay relocating from Surat's traditional diamond clusters.