An upcoming jail in Mankhurd is expected to become one of the tallest prisons in the country. The prison, to be built over five acres of land, will be six-storey high and can house 3,000 inmates. “We plan to build a facility that can house 3,000 inmates. Since we are building a new prison, we want to ensure that it can accommodate a much higher number of inmates. To house as many people, we are hoping to construct a six-storey structure. It could be one of the tallest prisons in the country,” a senior official from prisons department told The Indian Express.
The Mankhurd jail is expected to come up in next two years, and will also have high-security cells for VIP inmates. The prison will come up near a patch of land adjacent to the Mankhurd station between Mankhurd and Vashi.
The department will find an architect to design the project. After that, the proposal will be passed on to the state government. The official hoped that the overcrowding of Mumbai prisons will be resolved through his new prison. “The Arthur Road Jail was constructed in 1926, it can only accommodate over 1,000 inmates. It, however, houses over 3,000 inmates at present”, the official said.
Although Taloja jail was constructed to take loads off Arthur jail, its location became an issue for authorities. The jail can house 2,500 inmates but it is too far from the Mumbai sessions court, which creates a problem. “It was a cumbersome exercise to ferry inmates from Taloja jail to the sessions court in south Mumbai where the trial of inmates lodged at Arthur Road Jail takes place. Hence, moving inmates from Arthur Road to Taloja did not make a lot of sense logistically. Also, we do not have enough prison guards to accompany inmates to the court,” the official said.