Three years ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 3,200-crore Surat Diamond Bourse (SDB), calling it “the best diamond in the world” and an example of “Modi’s guarantee” for Surat.

Today, the 9-tower complex, each with ground plus 15 floors – which replaced the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States Department of Defence as the “world’s biggest office space in a single project” – is a largely empty shell that has had just two major events to show for its glittering promise.

But barely 300 of the 4,200 diamond trading offices in the greenfield DREAM – Diamond Research and Mercantile – City project in Khajod, south of the city centre, are currently open.

Last week, BJP Rajya Sabha member Govindbhai Dholakia, who owns the diamond business Shree Ram Krishna Exports Pvt Ltd, made an emotional appeal to traders to move into their empty offices in the Gujarati new year (which begins the day after Diwali), and make SDB “the world’s most successful diamond business destination”.

Over the last…