Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday inaugurated the Surat Diamond Exchange, a complex that has overtaken the Pentagon as the world's largest office space. It covers a built-up area of 6.7 million square feet and was completed in July at a cost of ₹32 billion. Opened in 1943, this American historic site has an area of 6.5 million square feet.
The Exchange includes a state-of-the-art ‘Customs Clearing House’. For import-export; a jewelery mall for retail jewelery businesses; and a facility for international banking and secure vaults. While Mumbai has long been the center of diamond exports in India, Surat, also known as the “Diamond City”, dominates the processing of precious gems, with about 90% of the world's rough diamonds first cut and polished here These are sold to buyers in places like the US and China. The new exchange aims to centralize the industry under one roof.
