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Chief Minister to open new prison complex on August 20

PUDUCHERRY: The Central Prison will be shifted to new premises at Kalapet on August 20, Inspector-General of Police S. Vasudeva Rao has said.

“After completing all works, the Public Works Department has handed over the new complex to the Jail Department. The Chief Minister has promised to inaugurate the prison on August 20,” Mr. Rao, who is in charge of the prison administration, told The Hindu.

Inmates would be shifted to the new complex shortly after the inauguration. The work on the prison complex started in 2001. It would accommodate up to 500 prisoners, Mr. Rao said.

The 14.5-hectare complex had three separate blocks for convicts, under trials and women prisoners, he said, adding that it cost the government around Rs. 12 crore.

The Prison Department had also decided to strengthen the security by posting more personnel from the India Reserve Battalion, he said.

The government had not yet decided whether to go ahead with the Local Administration Department’s proposal to construct a multi-storeyed parking lot at the place where the prison originally functioned. In might be recalled that the Pondicherry Municipality had adopted a resolution at its council meeting to convert the area into a parking lot. The resolution recommended to the Local Administration Department construction of the parking complex on a build-operate-transfer mode.

Officials in the department said, “It has got an area of more than 2,000 sq.ft. It would be ideal to have a multi-storeyed parking lot to decongest Jawaharlal Nehru Street.” The Police and the Jail Departments also have plans to utilise the space once, sources said. While the Police Department wanted to add a few more buildings to the Grand Bazaar Station adjacent to the Central Prison, the Jail Department wanted another building for itself.

Representatives of traders association said the government should seriously consider the proposal to construct a multi-storeyed parking lot as it was the only viable solution for the parking problem in the town. The town did not have an exclusive area for parking vehicles, they said.

Since most of the traders and customers parked their vehicles on either side of the main thoroughfares in the town, it often created traffic congestion, they said.

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