Govt move to shift prison to Mudipu speeds up

A decade-old resolve of the government to shift the district jail to the outskirts of the city has picked up momentum.

The Public Works Department (PWD) has begun floating tenders to the new high security prison in Mudipu village in Bantwal taluk.

“The new central jail – spread over 64 acres of land in Mudipu village – will be built at a total cost of Rs 110 crore,” Additional Director General of Police (Prisons) N S Megharikh informed, when contacted.

“The prison complex – with male, female prisons, hospital, workshop, administrative office, helipad, video conferencing facility and staff quarters – will accommodate 1,000 inmates,” he told DH.

It was former DGP (Prisons) H N Satyanarayana Rao who had announced, during his visit to the district jail in 2017, that the state’s 10th central jail will be constructed on the outskirts city. Work on the new central jail began after being announced in the 2018-19 budget. A compound wall was built on the site for the jail at a total cost of Rs 2 crore by the PWD.

“The proposal on constructing non-residential buildings at the central jail in Mudipu received the government’s in-principal approval in September 2018 and administrative approval in May this year,” informed Megharikh, who had inspected the site in May.

The government has already released Rs 30 crore to PWD to initiate works. The present district jail in Kodialbail is bursting at its seams, he added.

“Although the capacity of the jail is 210 inmates, there are 400 inmates in the jail,” the DGP said, adding, “Another 600 inmates in different jails.”

He also said that he has been mounting pressure on PWD to complete the new central prison project within a year.

Other prisons

There are also other district prisons – including those at Bidar and Vijayapura – that are being shifted to the outskirts of the respective towns and cities.

The Shivamogga prison, with a capacity of 500 inmates, was already shifted to the outskirts.