Cuttack, Dec. 15: The proposal to develop the only remnant of a British-era jail at Ward No. 15 in Dargha Bazar into a freedom fighters' memorial museum appears to heading nowhere.

Though the Cuttack Development Authority had proposed the area's all-round development, the project has remained a non-starter for the past five years. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the conversion of Ward No. 15 into the museum in 2010.

The Ward No. 15 have now almost turned into a parking lot due to the inordinate delay in the preservation drive.

Earlier, Cuttack chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) had proposed conversion of the existing building of Ward No. 15 into an enclosed memorial with a flame and names of all prominent freedom fighters as well as of those jailed during the Independence. "As Intach's proposals were not up to the mark, there was a delay in execution of the project. We have asked them to submit fresh proposals after conducting a study of other old jails in the country," vice-chairman of the development authority Pratap Das told The Telegraph.

The Intach officials said the process of preparing a revised plan, including its design for renovation of the block, had started. "Our focus is now on giving the structure a jail look, apart from landscaping and other development work. Once all the estimates are prepared, along with the revised designs, the proposals will be sent to the authority for approval," said Intach official Malika Mitra.

Mitra said a dedicated team of architects had started the process of finalising design for giving a facelift to the heritage structure, and the proposals would be submitted by the end of December.

"If the project is still in the proposal stage, how many more years will it take to become a reality? The authorities should finally act and complete the project at the earliest," said state Freedom Fighters' Samiti member Bisweswar Dey.

The jail was built in 1881 with a civil ward constituting a 70ftX34ft room to accommodate 100 civil prisoners.

The prison functioned as a district jail after creation of a separate Bihar and Orissa province in 1912 and later became a central jail when Orissa became a separate province in 1936. The central jail was then shifted from Cuttack to Choudwar between 1984 and 88.