The State government has sanctioned ₹104 crore to establish a high-security prison at Suriyur near Tiruverumbur in Tiruchi district.
Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu, presenting his State Budget speech for the year 2024-25, said that it was a part of the Modernisation of Prisons initiative.
According to official sources, the Department of Prison and Correction Services had identified 65 acres of land at Suriyur village in Tiruverumbur taluk for building a high-security prison. The department had forwarded a detailed project report to the State government seeking its approval.
At present, the Tiruchi Central Prison is located on 280 acres of land abutting the Tiruchi-Karaikudi national highway at Kottapattu village. Over a decade ago, women inmates lodged in the Special Prison for Women inside the Central Prison Complex were shifted to a new modern jail constructed on 7.5 acres of land near the busy Gandhi Market in the city.
Nearly 1,500 prisoners of different categories, such as remand prisoners, undertrials, and convicts, were lodged in the Tiruchi Central Prison and Special Prison for Women, sources added.
Over a decade ago, the AIADMK government mooted a proposal to establish a bus stand close to the Tiruchi Central Prison in Kottapaddu. However, the proposal failed to take off. The DMK government took up the construction of an integrated bus terminus at Panjapur.
