India’s Largest Custom Clearance Center finds its new home in Surat Diamond Bourse

The long traffic congested journey from Surat to Mumbai will soon be a thing of the past as the Surat Diamond Bourse prepares to house the largest custom clearance center. Surat, which is famed as the diamond capital of the world, will be the home of this much-needed addition to the import and export process in the region.

The 2.5 million square feet Surat Diamond Bourse is already labeled a hub for diamond traders and manufacturers. The introduction of a customs clearance center is a move aimed at making the Diamond Bourse a one-stop center for everything diamonds. This will greatly ease business, especially for exporters, and ease the process of doing business in the industry.

Key goals of the customs clearance center include expedited processing, simplifying customs processes, document verification, and hastened import and export procedures. The diamond industry is considerably fast-paced and services provided to the industry players need to match that pace.

With Surat accounting for about 90 percent of the world’s diamond processing, it is seen as a no-brainer that a customs center is provided close to where all the work takes place. Businesses can now save time with this centralized arrangement for any custom custom-related activity.

The Indian government has long been taking steps to achieve its vision of improving the ease of doing business in the Asian nation. There have been several changes within the diamond industry in India that align with initiatives like the “Make in India Campaign” which seeks to encourage smooth manufacture of goods within India.

Business owners cannot doubt the government’s commitment to the creation of a business-friendly environment and the drive to grow the lab grown diamond industry in India.

At the moment the closest customs clearing center is in Mumbai. This means the importers and exporters have to brave the Mumbai traffic and the 15-kilometer journey to the airport. However, with a Customs Center at the Surat Diamond Bourse, the journey to the airport is reduced to just 3 kilometers. This will save a significant amount of time when transporting diamonds to and from the airport.

The spacious customs house covers an area of 60 thousand square feet and boasts of a spacious waiting room, secure vault, conference room, an area to conduct clearing services, officers cabins, postal department, and many more facilities needed for the smooth operation of what will be one of the biggest customs houses in the world.

It is expected that 11 officers will man the facility along with a superintendent as well as inspectors. For the first 3 years, these operations will be financed by the Surat Diamond Bourse committee. 

Diamentries in Surat can’t wait for this customs house to be operational. They point out that they are optimistic that the facility will be a game changer for their operations in Surat. They point out that this will be much more than just a way to quicken the export process, but also a means to promote transparency in the process that they feel is a little bureaucratic at the moment. As India positions itself as a major player in the global diamond trade, such a development is welcomed with open arms.

Pending approval

Although the setup of the customs house is all but done, it is reported that the approval for the setup is pending. A few modalities need to be finalized before Dehli can give the all-clear for the electronic data interchange. This is needed for the facility to operate in coordination with the headquarters in Delhi. Exports and imports will be seamlessly tracked once the system is installed.

About Surat Diamond Bourse

Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB) is the world’s largest office building. It sits on 660,000 square feet and consists of 9 towers with 15 floors each. The building houses thousands of offices for different businesses involved in the diamond industry. Previously, the world’s largest office building was the Pentagon.

It is believed that this building will eventually draw most of the big diamond players away from Mumbai. This is already in motion as it was announced that Billionaire diamond trader Vallabhbhai Lakhani will be transferring his business office to the Surat Diamond Bourse.

The official opening for the SDB is slated for December and so many industry players are in the final stages of setting up shop. 3400 crore was spent on putting up the building which is also attracting visitors interested in seeing one of the wonders of human architecture.