Harsha/ENS

Mangalore, Feb 8: The Prisons and Public Works Department (PWD) resolved a long-standing dispute and cleared the way for upgradation of district jail as central jail in its present location.

The expansion and upgradation of the district jail into central jail mooted a decade ago was realised in 2005. The jail built in 1904 for 150 undertrials, is crammed with more than 200 undertrials today.

The PWD took up the upgradation project when the Prisons department deposited Rs 5 crore. The work started with the excavation and laying of pillars in 2005 and was subsequently abandoned for nearly two years.

Then political leadership in the district realised that a jail’s location was not in heart of the city, but on city’s outskirts. The proposal did not make much headway as the required land was never identified.

When the Prisons department decided to stick to the original proposal of upgrading the jail in its present location, the PWD back-tracked as their contractor demanded compensation for loss of a yearlong work.

As the Prisons department refused to pay and the PWD refused to resume work, the dispute kept dragging. However, successive interventions by senior IAS officers including the Home Secretary dissolved the animosity.

The Prisons department accepted the current schedule rate (CSR) and bear the additional financial burden of Rs 2.50 crore. The PWD resumed work by demolishing the barracks.

Two new male and female barracks would replace six general barracks and a dozen solitary confinement cells in the first phase.

The height of the wall circling the barracks would be raised to 18 feet, PWD Superintending Engineer B S Balakrishna toldthis website’s newspaper.

Work on the second phase would get underway soon. By December 2009, the work would complete and Mangalore Central Jail will become seventh central jail in the State.