A visitor’s guide to Surat’s diamond streets

Surat cuts and polishes most of the world’s diamonds, but very little of that work happens in places you would recognise as shops. If you are visiting the city, it helps to know where things happen and what to expect.

Mahidharpura, in the old city near the Tapi river, is where the trade began. The narrow lanes are lined with small offices where brokers sit at white tables with folded paper parcels, scales and loupes. Deals are made on the street and over tea. It is busy between 10 am and 2 pm. You can walk through, but trading rooms are private and visitors are not shown stones.

Varachha and Katargam, east of the river, are where the cutting units are. Thousands of polishers work in buildings here, many of them from Saurashtra, and the area has its own lunch stalls, temples and evening markets. The work itself is behind locked doors for security, so there is not much to see from outside, though the scale of the neighbourhood is striking.

The retail side, where you can sit down and look at finished jewellery, is mostly along Ghod Dod Road and around Athwalines in the western part of the city. That is where we are. If you are in Surat for a day, walk Mahidharpura in the morning, eat locho and khaman for lunch in the old city, and book an afternoon viewing with us. We will show you how a rough stone becomes the one on your finger, with photographs from Paresh’s years at the cutting wheel.