Arthur Road jail to get 4 watchtowers, multipurpose hall

Mumbai's Arthur Road jail will get four watchtowers and a multipurpose hall, funded by ₹1.21 crore and ₹2.80 crore respectively, to enhance security.

Mumbai: The Mumbai Central Prison, also known as Arthur Road jail, will soon get four watchtowers to monitor activities outside the facility, thwart jail breaks and prevent people from throwing things inside the prison, according to a government resolution (GR) issued on Tuesday.

Arthur Road jail to get 4 watchtowers, multipurpose hall

Located in the bustling, densely populated neighbourhood of Jacob Circle, the prison is surrounded by slums on two sides. A committee appointed by the Maharashtra government in 2015 to study prison security categorised this as a risk.

The committee had recommended the removal of the slums, which never happened. Since then, many high-rise residential and commercial buildings have also come up in the vicinity, increasing the security risk, officials said.

According to the GR, the state government has sanctioned ₹1.21 crore for the construction of four watchtowers for the Arthur Road jail. It has also sanctioned ₹2.80 crore to build a multipurpose hall in the prison. “We didn’t have a hall inside the jail and, hence, could not hold any educational or entertainment programmes or correctional processes. We had written to the senior officers to sanction a hall. A small structure will be demolished and a hall of 2,800 sqft will be constructed,” said an officer attached to the prison.

The Arthur Road jail has a capacity of 804 prisoners and is always overcrowded, with more than 2,500 inmates at any given time, officials said.

Meanwhile, the Byculla Jail in Mumbai has been allocated funds of ₹1.77 crore for a new office for the jail superintendent and other senior officers. The jail administration will also be allowed to construct a new building where inmates, mostly women, will be able to meet their relatives in a hall. At present, the arrangements are temporary. The state has also sanctioned ₹2.8 crore for a new kitchen and godown at the jail.

The Thane Jail has been allocated ₹1.32 crore for extending the barrack for women prisoners, while the Harsul Central Jail in Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar will get ₹12.14 crore for the construction of a new open jail with capacity for 100 inmates and a separate cell for transgenders.

The state is also constructing an open jail in Akola in the Vidarbha region for women inmates at a cost of ₹11.90 crore, while another open jail with a capacity of 150 inmates is sanctioned at Kolhapur at a cost of ₹14.25 crore.