State-of-the-art Lajpur jail to be inaugurated next month in Surat

With construction work nearing its end, the new prison in Lajpur area of Surat is all set to be inaugurated by next month. The state-of-the-art prison equipped with 820 CCTV cameras will have a capacity of around 3,000 prisoners.

The managing director of Gujarat State Police Housing Corporation Limited (GPHC), K Nityanandam, said that the prison has been constructed at a cost of around Rs80 crore, of which an approximate Rs5 crore has been used for the purchase of the latest gadgets.

"This is the first prison of its kind in the state, with all types of hi-tech security equipment," Nityanandam said. The prison, he said, has been equipped with 820 CCTV cameras installed on the prison complex as well as in the barracks.

Although the Lajpur prison has lesser capacity as compared to the Sabarmati Central Jail, the largest prison in the state, it will be equipped with more number of latest gadgets and a hi-tech control room.

"All these cameras will give an alert whenever prison norms are violated," he said. For instance, in the high security zone, if there is a norm that more than three people should not gather is violated, the camera will issue an alert in the control room.

Nityanandam was speaking at a press conference held to announce the two-day 'National Seminar and Exhibition on Industrial Security' in the state. The seminar will be inaugurated by the chief minister Narendra Modi on March 26, 2011 at the Gujarat University Convention Hall in the city. The seminar has been partnered by CII, GIDC and GCCI.

Former commissioner of police, Mumbai and director general of police, Maharashtra D Sivanandan and Karamveer Singh Kang, former security head of Taj Hotel in Mumbai and a survivor of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, are slated to deliver speeches at the seminar. Apart from this, Sanjan Bhel, national security head of Microsoft, MR Reddy, former chief of SPG, and security heads of Reliance Refinery, Jamnagar will also be present.