The authorities will transfer 1,500 inmates to the new Central Jail in Chandipokhari, Bidur Municipality-6, Nuwakot district by the end of this fiscal year.

The Attorney General Agni Kharel said, “The government aims to transfer inmates to the new prison that has all facilities. The government has taken this initiative because the majority of prisons in the country are full with inmates way beyond their capacity.”

Currently, in Central Jail, there are around 2,400 prisoners. The prison, built in 1914, has capacity of 1,200 inmates. 

The government had planned long back to relocate the Central Jail to Bidur, the Nuwakot district headquarters. This followed increasing concerns over the infrastructure and security situation at the Central Jail.

The Attorney General visited Bidur to inspect the ongoing construction work of the Central Jail. The construction work has been divided into four to five phases. Workers are currently working on the first phase. Kharel said the prison would be developed as the correction home in order to orient inmates towards positive thoughts.

The Department of Prison Management (DoPM) said the construction work worth around Rs 180 million is already complete. The DoPM had issued a tender of Rs 420 million to construct the first phase of the project.

In the newly made prison, each block will accommodate at least 600 prisoners. The prison will have its own hospital, a small industry and security barrages. Prison authorities will incarcerate prisoners serving terms for serious crime convictions in separate cells. A Cabinet meeting on April 3, 2014 endorsed the DoPM plan to shift the prison to Bidur.

The government plans to set up a prison facility on 643-ropani land to accommodate 7,000 inmates in Bidur.

The department plans to transfer some inmates from the Dillibazaar prison to Bidur. Across the country, there are more than 19,000 prisoners, 1,400 of them female, serving sentences in 74 facilities.