Guwahati Central Jail

Guwahati, March 30: Guwahati Central Jail will have a new address from tomorrow. The shift to Sarusajai was long overdue but it has left those associated with the earlier Fancy Bazar address nostalgic and with different opinions about the old building.

Ganesh, who runs a paan shop near the Fancy Bazar building, said the area where the jail staff quarters are situated, was a forest 45 years ago. “I will miss the joys and sorrows of the relatives of inmates. It will take some time adjusting to the changed atmosphere but it is for the better,” he added.

Jail officials said the shifting would continue till April 7.

A local businessman who has been running his cloth shop for 37 years, just 50 metres from the main gate of the jail, said the place had always been peaceful. “Police personnel from the jail used to come to my shop. We will feel the vacuum. It will be good if the area was turned into a well-developed place,” he added.

The jail, which was set up in 1881, became overcrowded, compelling inmates to stay in inhuman conditions. The jail now houses 805 inmates against its optimum capacity of 507. Within the next two days, the inmates will be moved to the new jail, which already has 132 prisoners. The old building will be taken over by the Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority, which plans to develop an underground parking and a park at the site.

A police source associated with the jail said the Fancy Bazar location was suitable from the administrative point of view. “The pressure on manpower and transport will increase when we start taking inmates to courts for hearings,” he added.

Some feel the existing structure should be preserved or a piece of history might fade into oblivion. “It is a heritage structure. Efforts should be made to save it. We can look at the option of having a walled market just like a walled city,” a senior official of the Archaeological Survey of India suggested.

“A structure which is century-old and reminds of the bygone days should not be dismantled. At least the portion which has unique architecture, should be preserved,” he added.

There are instances of old jail buildings being preserved. Hong Kong’s first prison, Victoria Prison, which was built in 1841, was declared a national monument. Fremantle Prison in Western Australia was included in the World Heritage List in 2010.

Some others suggested a complete revamp of the congested area. “We need a well-developed park and an underground parking lot. The jail should go. We don’t want the area to remain chaotic and congested,” said Dhiren Baruah of Save Guwahati Build Guwahati.

A CMO official said they would do some stock-taking before ordering demolition. “We will go by what the people want,” he added.

The Sarusajai jail complex has been constructed over 63 bighas (the Fancy Bazar jail was built over 45 bighas) with modern facilities and better security at a cost of Rs 19.86 crore. It can accommodate 1,000 inmates.

The project for the new jail building, an initiative of both the Union and state governments, was taken up in two phases in 2002-03. It was inaugurated by chief minister Tarun Gogoi on April 30, 2010. At the inauguration, minister for social welfare and jail Akon Bora had said the shifting process of the inmates would begin in June and would be completed by December that year. But the process, which was supposed to be completed in six months, has taken almost two years.