Land for new jail in Delhi’s Narela handed over to prison dept
Currently, Delhi’s prison complexes house 19,669 inmates against their total capacity of 10,026.
New Delhi: The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) handed over 1.6 lakh square metres of land to Delhi’s prison department to construct a new jail complex near Lampur in Narela to decongest the existing overcrowded prison complexes--Tihar, Mandoli and Rohini--on June 15, officials said Monday.
Currently, Delhi’s prison complexes house 19,669 inmates against their total capacity of 10,026.
According to officials, the idea for a fourth jail was conceived in 2003 and the prison department had made an advance payment to the DDA for land; however, the land-owning authority later hiked the rates, leading to a delay in the project.
Apprised of the delay, lieutenant governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on June 8 ordered the DDA to hand over the land allotted for setting up a district jail in Narela to the prison department and report compliance of the order by June 15. “Accordingly, the DDA formally handed over the land, measuring approximately 1.6 lakh square metres, to the prison department on June 15,” an official of the LG office said.
A prison department official said that now that the land has been allocated, there is likely to be a meeting with the Public Works Department (PWD) soon. “It is likely that the new complex will be constructed in a modern way. We will decide the capacity and the number of storeys in the meeting and a final decision will be taken by the government,” the official said.
The official quoted above said that it is likely that the proposed jail complex will be a multi-storey building, spread over 40 acres of land. “It could accommodate at least 3,000 prisoners, although the final number of inmates is yet to be decided,” the official said.
According to officials, in February 2003, the finance department had sanctioned a sum of ₹7.79 crore as advance with the request for allotment of land.
An official of the LG office said, “The DDA raised a revised demand for ₹1,28,08,94,191 in 2018, payment for which was made by the department in 2020. Subsequently, DDA raised a demand for ₹29,88,75,311--an interest on delayed payment from July 29, 2018 to March 28, 2020. The issue of interest payment has not yet been settled.”
In the meantime, the DDA moved a proposal for the relocation of the already allotted land near Lampur at Narela away from the district court, police lines, police training institute, etc. “LG Saxena overruled this proposal, observing that the allotment of land in close proximity with above entities is desirable from a functional point of view and will also create a distinct area within the zone which will be useful from a planning perspective,” the LG office said.
“The LG observed that since the matter to be resolved is between two government departments, it could be taken up in due course. The LG asked for a compliance report regarding the handover of the land. The LG’s direction has been complied with,” said another official.
DDA spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
To be sure, while overcrowing in Delhi’s jails has been a problem for years, matters came to a head during the Covid-19 pandemic. Several prisoners had to be released to decongest the jails because social distancing within the prison complex became a challenge.
Mandoli and Rohini were constructed to ease overcrowding at Tihar--itscentral jail was first commissioned in 1958 with an initial prisoner capacity of 1,273.The prison complexes in Mandoli and Rohini are smaller than Tihar. The Mandoli complex--which was constructed in 2008 and started functioning in 2016-- can accommodate 3,776 inmates, while the Rohini complex--commissioned in 2004-- can accommodate 1,050 inmates (the actual number of inmates both complexes house is not immediately available).