New Delhi: Tihar Jail will be completely shifted from its current West Delhi location to the outskirts of the Capital. This process, a prison official said, would be initiated as soon as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) approves a 400-acre plot for the prison complex. Last month, jail authorities wrote a letter to the DDA seeking allocation of land while citing issues of overcrowding in its three prison complexes — they currently house double the capacity of inmates.
A copy of the April 24 letter also referred to Chief Minister Rekha Gupta’s Budget speech in March, where she spoke about shifting the jail. The letter stated, “… Delhi Prisons are operating from three complexes of Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli, comprising 16 jails. These prisons have an overall capacity to lodge 10,026 inmates, whereas the present occupancy in these prisons is around 20,000.”
This, the letter said, “creates security issues and causes severe strain on essential amenities like water and sewerage facilities, garbage disposal, etc., which results in serious health hazards and adversely impacts other correctional/reformation and rehabilitation programmes running inside the jail.” The letter also pointed out that despite a fourth prison, a high-security one at Narela, coming up, it will still not be able to address the problem.
“The upcoming project of constructing a high-security prison at Narela shall also not be able to address the problem of overcrowding, as the sanctioned capacity… at this jail is 256 inmates. Hence, the department is in dire need of additional land for constructing new jails having a capacity to accommodate at least 5,000-8,000 inmates,” it said.
Located in West Delhi, Tihar is close to Tilak Nagar and Hari Nagar areas of the city. A jail official stressed why the move is important. “It’s essential to move Tihar out of a residential locality,” he said. “Most of our jails are single-storeyed, while the residential societies around Tihar are high-rises. Anyone can climb up these buildings and see Tihar. Anything can be thrown inside. Also, the residents face problems with jammers in the jail disrupting signals around the area. Jails are meant to keep criminals at a distance from cities — not in the middle of them.”
The jail administration has also mooted another proposal to decongest prisons — constructing two new jails, with a combined capacity of 2,000 inmates, alongside the upcoming Narela prison. In this regard, the jail administration will soon send a proposal to the government, a prison official said. The total land allotted for the Narela High security prison is 40 acres, out of which the 250-inmate capacity site would require approximately 18 acres to construct, a Tihar official said.
“The remaining area, around 22 acres, would be used to construct the two other prisons. The proposal is being drafted and will be sent soon. Since the plan is to construct it on already allocated land, extra allocation of area won’t be needed,” the official said.
