HYDERABAD: The 139-year-old Chanchalguda jail will be moved to new premises at Charlapally Prisoner's Agriculture Colony (PAC) soon. The existing PAC at Charlapally will be shifted to Shahabad in Ranga Reddy district to pave way for the jail.Official sources said while the current jail at Chanchalguda covers just about 30 acres, the proposed premises covers 100 acres. The prisons department is planning to construct a state-of-the-art jail at Charlapally. "The department estimates that Rs 490 crore will be required for the construction of the new jail complex. The proposals have been sent to the government for budgetary allocations," VK Singh, director general of Prisons and Correctional Services, told TOI on Friday. The new jail complex will be divided into four blocks. One will the main prison block with a capacity to hold 1,500 prisoners, with another block for about 400 to 500 female prisoners.A separate block has been proposed for housing the prison department headquarters and for setting up a training college for the staff.The state government wants to relocate the jail as the present 30-acre premises is crowded with about 1,300 prisoners including 260 detenus, 800 remanded prisoners and convicts. Remanded prisoners, especially by courts in Hyderabad, are sent to Chanchalguda which also has 10 enclosures that can accommodate 100 to 150 people each. Interestingly, the prisons department spent about Rs 7 crore for construction of five buildings as part of its expansion plan and funds from the Centre to build barracks as per international norms. "Chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao had announced that the jail area would be utilized for housing a residential school of boys and girls of the minority community. But no final decision has been taken," a senior official of jails department said.

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