In a bid to ease overcrowding in jails in and around Mumbai, the state government has approved the allocation of land at Mankhurd for constructing a prison.
The high-security Arthur Road jail will also get additional infrastructure with work on two barracks meant to intern prisoners being completed by March 2018. The jail, which houses prisoners like former deputy chief minister Chhagan Bhujbal, has many more inmates than its sanctioned capacity.
A senior home department official said that in a recent meeting, chief secretary Sumit Mullick had asked for 5 acre land at Mankhurd to be made available for the construction of the prison.
"The plot, which belongs to the revenue department, has been earmarked for the construction of a correctional facility in the BMC's development plan… the public works department (PWD) will be asked to draw up plans for the jail after we take possession of the land," he added, stating that the work would begin after the land was handed over to the Maharashtra prison department.
Maharashtra Prison Department officials said that the construction of this new facility, along with two new barracks housing around 400 prisoners being commissioned at the Arthur Road jail, would ease the burden on the jails in and around Mumbai. As on October-end, the state's prisons, which have a capacity to house 23,942 inmates, including both undertrials and convicts, housed 32,752 such people. The overcrowding is more intense in Mumbai, Thane and Pune.
NEW LAND FOR JAIL
- A senior home department official said that in a recent meeting, chief secretary Sumit Mullick had asked for 5 acre land at Mankhurd to be made available for the construction of the prison.
- As on October, state’s prisons, which have a capacity to house 23,942 inmates, including both under-trials and convicts, housed 32,752 people.
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