Pune’s Yerawada Jail to open for tourists from Republic Day

The Maharashtra state government is ready to welcome tourists to the famous Yerawada Jail in Pune, starting from January 26, 2021.

The objective behind promoting jail tourism is to enable people to visit and see the historical prison. Reportedly, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar will flag off the jail tourism enterprise at Pune's Yerawada Central Jail on the Republic Day. The same has been announced by Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in a press conference at Police Gymkhana.
Reportedly, jail tourism will start from Yerawada jail in the first phase. It would benefit students from schools, colleges and the general public to visit historical jails.
Yerawada jail is famous for the fact that prominent freedom fighters including Lokmanya Tilak, Motilal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabhbhai, Subhas Chandra Bose and Sarojini Naidu were imprisoned here during their lifetime. Memories related to these personalities have also been on display at the jail.
News has it that tour guides will be present for the visitors at the jail and ticket prices will range from INR 5 to INR 50. However, government had put a cap on the number of visitors to be allowed to visit the jail premises on a daily basis.

The jail tourism drive would also feature jails in Nashik, Thane and Ratnagiri.
In India, the Cellular Jail aka Kala Pani, which is a colonial prison in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, is also open for tourists. In addition, Goa’s CM announced revamping of Aguada jail for promoting tourism a few weeks back.