Byculla Jail to be redeveloped into vertical prison

Dinesh Waghmare, principal secretary of the home department who supervises the functioning of the prisons department, visited the jail on August 31. “It is old and has a smaller capacity,” he said. “I have told my officers to construct some vertical cells there so that we get more space

MUMBAI: The state government has plans to break down parts of the city’s oldest prison, Byculla Jail, and build a vertical prison there. Shortage of space is a huge issue in Mumbai, and there have been agitations inside the prison in the past since the cells are overcrowded.

Byculla Jail to be redeveloped into vertical prison

Dinesh Waghmare, principal secretary of the home department who supervises the functioning of the prisons department, visited the jail on August 31. “It is old and has a smaller capacity,” he said. “I have told my officers to construct some vertical cells there so that we get more space.”

Vertical jails are buildings of more than eight storeys. The state government has set up a committee under Yogesh Desai, Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Jails, to study how vertical jails can be set up.

Byculla Jail, which housed female inmates like murder accused Indrani Mukherjee and Maria Susairaj, financial scam accused Chanda Kochar, besides Sudha Bhardwaj and Rhea Chakrabarty, is a district jail that was constructed in the 1850s. It is older than Arthur Road Central Prison, which was built in 1925. Some parts of it were renovated in the 1990s. It has a capacity of 450 inmates, and now has around 800 people crammed in it. The compound also houses the office of the DIG, south region.

Since there were many issues related to prisoners and undertrials, Waghmare decided to visit this prison and later held a review meeting. “There is an acute shortage of space in Mumbai, and vertical prisons are the only answer,” he said. “When the construction begins, we will have to shift some of the inmates to other jails.”

Meanwhile, the state has taken possession of 2.05 hectares of land at Mandale village in Turbhe, where a vertical jail is due to come up. The jails department wanted a five-hectare plot, but a huge chunk was taken by MMRDA for a metro car shed.

Waghmare said that apart from the Mandale plot in the eastern suburbs, the jails department was also seeking a 10-acre plot at Mankhurd. “This land is currently with the police and they don’t need it,” he said. “Hence we are asking for this plot for another jail, as the Mandale plot will not suffice.”

At present, Arthur Road Jail is the central prison of Mumbai and has a capacity of 804 inmates. Often, however, there are more than 3,000 inmates here. Due to the acute paucity of space, prisoners are also sent to the Taloja and Thane jails.

For the western suburbs of Mumbai, the state had offered a plot of land at Manori to the jails department. “Our officers visited the plot and found it is in a highly inconvenient location, as one has to take a ferry boat to access it,” said Waghmare. “In Mumbai, we have undertrials in our jails and it is not possible to transport them by ferry to the courts. Hence we have dropped the idea of having a jail in Manori.” Waghmare added that the jails department was scouting for another plot in Pahadi in Goregaon.

Apart from this, the jails department will construct more barracks in the Thane jail, a plan that is awaiting a final nod from chief minister Eknath Shinde. Besides, the Maharashtra Police Housing Welfare Corporation, which is constructing new jails in the state, has invited tenders for a new jail for neighbouring Palghar district at a cost of ₹650 crore.