Arthur Road jail may go vertical

The state government plans to increase the capacity of the Arthur Road jail in Mumbai by converting it into a multi-storey structure. It is also looking at land in Mumbai and the surrounding areas to build an additional prison to decongest this jail.

Although the Arthur road jail can accommodate only 804 prisoners, it currently has around 3,200 inmates in barracks which are ground-plus-one structures.
Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab, who was executed in November 2012 for his role in the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai, was also housed in this prison.

At present, the prison’s high security cell houses high-profile inmates such as gangster Santosh Shetty, Zabiuddin Ansari alias Abu Jundal, an accused in the 26/11 terror attacks, and Himayat Baig, who was arrested in the German bakery blast.

During the recent monsoon session of the state legislature, in a written reply to an unstarred question by Dr Deepak Sawant and Neelam Gorhe of the Shiv Sena in the legislative council, home minister RR Patil said they were planning to convert the prison into a multi-storey building to accommodate more inmates.

“The authorised capacity of prisoners in Mumbai’s Arthur Road jail is 804 but in reality, the prison has more inmates lodged than the authorised number,” admitted Patil in the reply.

He added that in order to accommodate maximum prisoners in Arthur Road jail, the prison administration has been asked to consider converting the building into a multi-storey structure. He added that the state is also looking at additional land in and around Mumbai to build an extended jail to reduce the load of additional inmates on the prison and accordingly, this action was under consideration.

“We are looking at land in Mumbai and the surrounding areas for an additional jail,” said a senior home department official, adding that however, no specific decision had been taken so far on converting Arthur Road jail into a multi-storey one.

Maharashtra has nine central jails, 28 district jails, five open jails, one open colony and 172 sub-jails. Four jails are also being constructed at Sindhudurg, Jalna, Nandurbar and Gadchiroli.