The Surat Diamond Association (SDA) has launched a new welfare project to address medical needs of diamond workers and their families in the city. The association plans to build a hospital and provide quality medical treatment at subsidized rates, to the diamond worker community in the city. The facility is to come up at Nana Varachha in Surat over 2,200 square yards of land already allotted by the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) at Chikuwadi in Nana Varachha.

The SDA has appointed a six-member team to overlook the project, its design and fund raising. Initially, a gynaecology and children hospital will be set up, at a cost of about Rs 15 crore and the foundation stone is expected to be laid in the next three months.

The hospital project, according to SDA will be the first ever such dedicated to the diamond community and their families, who otherwise face expensive treatments in the city’s private nursing homes.