MbPT land sought for new prison

Meeran Borwankar,additional director general of police,prisons,said,“We are looking at proximity to courts considering the security aspect. MbPT land is closest

to courts.”

MbPT owns large tracts along the 14.5-km Mumbai coastline. It has around 1,800 acres and since port business has declined the demand is this land should be freed to meet infrastructure needs of the city.

While the state has 44 jails,Mumbai Central,Thane Central,Kalyan District prisons have been facing the problem of overcrowding for a decade. The 44 prisons,including the latest,2008 addition at Taloja,have a sanctioned capacity of 21,246 inmates.

Of the nine central jails,Arthur Road and Thane Central have 3,564 undertrials compared to their sanctioned strength of 1,909. Kalyan District Prison has 346 more undertrials than its sanctioned strength of 505.

“Escorting undertrials to and from courts sometimes takes six hours. This is a serious security concern,” Borwankar said,adding,“We need more land to ensure jails are not overcrowded and we need to build jails soon.”

She said the jail proposed on MbPT land would have a sanctioned capacity of over 1,000 inmates.

Home department officials,meanwhile,said the central government would have to release the MbPT land for the jail to come up.

“It all depends on the central government as it owns the land,” Medha Gadgil,principal secretary (appeals & security),home department,said.