Bursting at the seams, Tihar seeks 400 acres for its new complex to house more inmates

New Delhi: Following chief minister Rekha Gupta's budget announcement, the Tihar administration has written to Delhi govt requesting identification and allotment of 400 acres of land for a new complex, according to sources. The new jail is likely to have a capacity to house 8,000 inmates.
An official communication in this regard was sent a few days ago to Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Delhi govt's department of land and building.

In its letter, the Tihar administration is learnt to have highlighted the urgent need for the land to construct new jails capable of housing between 5,000 and 8,000 inmates. This move is deemed essential to alleviate the severe pressure on current prison facilities, which are already operating well beyond capacity.
The letter also highlighted that the project to construct a high-security prison at Narela is unlikely to resolve the issue of overcrowding, as the sanctioned capacity for the facility is only 256, far too few to meet the growing demands of the inmate population.
The new complex is seen as a critical solution to the escalating issue of overcrowding in prisons, particularly in Tihar, which is one of the largest facilities in the country.
In her budget speech last month, CM Gupta had announced a new scheme to decongest the existing Tihar jail complex to improve prisoner welfare. An outlay of Rs 10 crore was proposed for consultation and survey work for this purpose.
In her speech, Gupta had said under the aegis of Delhi Jail, a society would be set up to work for the reformation and rehabilitation of prisoners. It would develop their overall skills through skill-imparting programmes and professionalise the functioning of various factories and manufacturing units in the jails.
Currently, Tihar Jail is set up on 200 acres of land. It has nine jails and houses 13,000 inmates in a space meant for 5,200. The problem of overcrowding is equally dire at other city prisons -- Mandoli Jail, with a capacity of 3,776, houses over 3,900 inmates while Rohini Jail's capacity of 1,050 has been stretched to accommodate over 2,000.
Additionally, residents of Janakpuri have been facing a persistent problem with weak and drifting mobile signals due to the network jammers installed by the jail authorities at Tihar to prevent communication with inmates.