Bangalore: It is no Robben Island off Cape Town where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years and has since found place on the tourist map.

A Kerala jail plans to launch a "prison museum", complete with a cell block, for anyone willing to experience incarceration for a fee.

The state prisons department has chalked out a blueprint to construct a building in front of the men's block of the central prison at Viyyur in Thrissur to attract those, including tourists, who might want to spend a night "in a cell" wearing prison clothes and eating simple jail food.

"This is part of a project that the department has conceived to allow people to experience jail life for 24 hours," jail superintendent M.K. Vinod Kumar told The Telegraph on Wednesday. The fee is yet to be decided.

The guest "prisoners" won't be accommodated in the actual jail that currently houses some 800 men and 70 women. The new block will be built over an acre. Although the block will be inside the prison compound, the guests will not be able to go anywhere near the actual prisoners.

The department has already sanctioned Rs 3 crore of the Rs 6 crore needed for the building that would not resemble the existing prison.

"It will be a more modern building with cells that would appear every bit an actual prison. The idea is to have six or seven cells that can accommodate people of any age or gender," said Kumar. Each cell will accommodate one person.

The guests will have access to the emergency medical care that is available to the actual prisoners.

"Visitors will be given prison clothes and served actual prison food for all three meals," Kumar said.

While men in the Kerala jail wear white cotton shirt and mundu (dhoti), it's mandatory for women prisoners to wear white sari. The prison menu comprises tea and upma for breakfast, rice, sambar, a vegetable side dish and meat on at least three days a week for lunch and wheat balls or rice gruel for supper.

The first such jail museum project in Kerala that has two other central prisons in Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur will also have on display a British-era torture equipment, handcuffs, antique firearms, a library and a light-and-sound show.

A traditional Kerala thattukada (wayside eatery) will be set up for day visitors.

The entire prison complex, including the women's jail, stands on 139 acres. The men's jail has eight blocks with cells for hardened criminals and dormitories for others.

Kumar said Thrissur was picked as the location for the prison museum since it's right in the centre of Kerala while Kannur is near the northern tip.

The blueprint proposes online booking for those wanting to experience the "pay-and-use" cells.

A 222-year-old British-era jail at Sangareddy in Telangana already offers prison stay like the one being planned in Thrissur. The colonial-era jail was converted to a full-fledged facility for the "Feel the Jail" programme. The jail provides uniforms made of khadi and food served in steel vessels to all "prisoners" who shell out Rs 500 for 24 hours of "confinement".