The Public Works Department (PWD) has floated a tender to construct a high tech high-security prison on a 40-acre plot in outer Delhi’s Narela area. This prison will have arrangements for around 256 prisoners to accommodate in it. The design will be like Cellular Jail on the Andaman and Nicobar islands. The prison will have all facilities within a single compound such as a courtroom, an ICU unit and a control centre with video conferencing.
The prison’s architectural design will be inspired by the historic Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said officials. The new prison with a capacity of 250-300 inmates will come up near the NIT Delhi campus. It will be the national capital’s fourth jail.
According to the plan, inmate wards within the prison complex will be built along four long corridors, each 1.5 metres wide and arranged at 90-degree angles. These corridors will be separated by green spaces and bordered by a water body on one side.
“Apart from a full independent infrastructure, which may house hardcore criminals, the high-security prison complex would have an independent court complex, a medical unit for inmates to make it a self-sufficient and secure unit,” an official said. The project, which will be completed in 21 months, is part of a centrally sponsored scheme funded by the Ministry of Home Affairs to construct high-security prisons in different parts of the country.
The official said that the project consultant submitted his report last year and recently received an approval from the government, adding the prison complex will have the capacity of 250-300 inmates.
The Centre has already allocated `100 crore for construction of this prison and the remaining `40 crore will be borne by the Delhi government.
The construction work has to be completed in 21 months, said another official. The complex will have four ward blocks on the ground and first floors, one administrative block, one control room and dispensary, one mess, eight watch towers and eight steel gates.
“Each ward block is planned for having a capacity of 64 inmates. Apart from cells for inmates, the ward block will have a guard room with attached toilet, canteen, inmate room, video conferencing room, legal room, medical room and common toilet,” the tender document stated.
Apart from this, the prison’s security features will include CCTV cameras, round-the-clock surveillance, isolation rooms with facilities to ensure that inmates do not interact much, high walls and mobile jammers of superior technology.
Tihar, which is considered one of the largest prison complexes comprising nine central prisons, has more than double the capacity of inmates. Around 19,000 inmates are lodged in Tihar Jail.
