Jail Training Academy incomplete even after 4 extensions

More than 550 trees were cut down near the River Padma in Rajshahi to rebuild the country's only Jail Training Academy but, despite four extensions, its construction is yet to be completed.

Conservationists protested against the tree felling, but to no avail. The trees, many of which had lived more than 100 years, were sold only for Tk19 lakh.

The initiative to rebuild the Jail Training Academy near the Padma, close to Rajshahi Central Jail was taken up in 2014 and the project got government approval the same year.

The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the project the following year and the cost of the project was estimated at Tk73.42 crore.

The project was supposed to be completed by June 2018 but the work did not even start that year. It was extended till June 2020 and later to June 2021. Even by June 2021, although most buildings were constructed, more construction work was still left undone.

The project authorities wrote to the Planning Commission seeking another extension till December 2022 and asked for an additional allocation of Tk28 crore. The approval is yet to come through so work on the project has stopped for the time being.

Originally starting out in Rajshahi in 1995, the academy offered various kinds of training for prison officials, from basic training, management, and care of individuals in a custodial environment, to physical and firearms training.

Earlier, the academy used to be in a smaller setting inside the Rajshahi Central Jail. But ever since the construction of the new academy started, the training has been taking place at Kashimpur Central Jail.

During a visit to the construction site recently, The Business Standard was struck by the barrenness owing to the lack of greenery. No workers were there at the site, just some incomplete buildings…standing purposeless. It almost seemed that the trees were felled in vain.

However, the sixth director of the project, Dr Sanjay Chakrabarty, had a more optimistic way of looking at things. He said, "Some 61% of the work on the project has already been completed and 95% of the infrastructure work is done."

He said both the cost and duration of the project has increased as a few things have recently been added to the project. Elaborating, he said, "For example, originally, we had a plan to build a two-storey women's barracks but now, we want to make it four-storeyed. There was no plan to add elevators in the previous plan, but now we are going to add that. We have to purchase quite a lot of furniture as well."

Dr Sanjay Chakrabarty said the project's updated cost now stands at Tk101 crore and if approved, the project can be completed by December 2022.

Harun-ur-Rashid, executive engineer of Public Works Department-1 in Rajshahi that is in charge of the implementation of the project, said, "The construction of one of the buildings of the project has been stopped for a while now. We have already completed the work of almost Tk20 crore in advance. But as the development project proposal (DPP) has not been approved, we cannot pay the contractors."

However, he was hopeful the proposal, which still requires some revision, will go to the Planning Division any day now and the work will be escalated once the proposal is approved.