Beur Central Jail

Bread made in the Beur Central Jail bakery is expected to hit the Patna markets this summer, with a surprise addition — cookies.

More than two years after the Beur Bakery was launched, officials in the home (prisons) department said it will take at least two months for the packets of bread manufactured by the jail inmates to be distributed in Patna markets. The bread prepared at the Beur jail has been branded Bandini, as are other products manufactured in the different prisons in Bihar.

Inspector-general (prisons) Anand Kishore told The Telegraph that the department would also add new and improved bakery machines at the Beur unit to increase production. The bakery would also prepare cookies and distribute them in a couple of months, he added.

“We have discussed with Bihar State Milk Co-operative Federation Limited about the distribution of breads manufactured at Beur in Patna. The market in Patna is huge and the quantity of the products has to be increased,” said Kishore.

He added: “The distribution project has been kept on hold. By next week, tenders will be invited for purchasing modern machines and the manufacturing capacity will be increased. Cookies will also be manufactured by the inmates and then marketed. The distribution is expected to begin within two months.”

At present, there is only one bread-making machine at the jail. It can manufacture 15,000 packets of bread weighing 400 grams each, a day.

The Beur Bakery was launched on February 4, 2011, as a joint initiative of the state government and the Union ministry of micro, small and medium enterprises. Although 78 inmates. trained by the authorities of the Modern Bread Company and Institute of Hotel Management, Hajipur, started off the unit, the number dropped to 12 last year.

The announcement of the senior home department officers at the bakery’s inauguration of sending the breads to Patna Medical College Hospital and Nalanda Medical College Hospital in the first phase also took a hit because of the dwindling bakers.

An official said: “We have convinced most of the inmates to return to manufacture the breads. More inmates, too, will be trained in the job. Fifteen thousand packets of bread a day is not enough for the Patna market. The production needs to increase. Cookies would also be manufactured once the new machines arrive.”