Ministry of Interior has proposed the National Highway Authority (NHA) to create an interchange or link road at Sector H-16/17 from Motorway to the site of Model Prison situated at H-16 Islamabad.
Work on the modern prison in Sector H-16 Islamabad is underway and it would be completed soon, resolving the problem of district administration and Capital police who have to transport prisoners from Rawalpindi for hearing in courts. It is to mention that Model Prison is a project of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration and Ministry of Interior.
For access to this prison, Ministry of Interior has forwarded a proposal to NHA to create an interchange or link road at sector H-16/17 from Motorway to the site of Model Prison situated at H-16 Islamabad, the sources told APP on Sunday.
A number of meetings have been also held in Ministry of Interior to discuss the best possible option to provide access to Model Prison from link road of Motorway M-1/M-2 including construction of Flyover and low cost access to Model prison from Srinagar Highway. A committee has been constituted by Secretary Interior to visit the Model Prison site and evaluate their options for access to Model Prison, Islamabad from Srinagar Highway/Motorway. This committee comprises of Additional Secretary (Admn), Ministry of Interior who would head it as Chairman while its other members are Member Engineering (CDA), General Manager Design NHA, Additional Deputy Commissioner General ICT, AIG Prison Government of the Punjab and Director (Dev./Finance) ICT.
According to the TORs of the committee, it would evaluate various cost effective options for the provision of hassle free access to Model Prison Islamabad project from Srinagar Highway /Motorway. The decision would be conveyed to NHA following which authority would proceed in the matter as per direction of the concerned quarter. The proposed interchange will also facilitate the residents of sector I-16, I-15 and residents of PHA flats I-16/3, Islamabad.
It is to mention that Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has also directed to review the prison project and ensure its completion at earliest. Currently, Adiala Jail is housing Islamabad’s share of prisoners as the capital has no jail. The ICT administration also wants its own jail as it is becoming increasingly problematic for the police to transport prisoners to and from Rawalpindi after court hearings.
The Islamabad jail complex is being constructed on 90-acre in Sector H-16 near the motorway. The under-construction jail will house 2,000 prisoners and will be equipped with a 22-bed hospital, a school for the children of the jail staff, a mosque, a library, an auditorium, segregated cells and separate barracks for women and juvenile prisoners. The complex will also have a training facility for prison officials.
In 2018, the then Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal inaugurated work on the long-awaited prison in the capital during the tenure of the PML-N. However, the work has consistently faced delay since then and this cost of this project is now expected to escalate by millions of rupees due to the negligence of related authorities in tenure PTI led government. Though, the government has allocated funds for the project in successive annual budgets over the past few years but had been unable to start work on it in earnest.
The premier Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has now directed the authorities concerned to complete the project in the next fiscal year. The source said that project would be completed as per directions of Prime Minister and it might be operational in the end of 2023.
