India, April 20 -- After the city's land crunch put paid to two past attempts to construct a state-of-the-art prison in the Mumbai suburbs, the state home department is now eyeing an 11-acre plot of land in Deonar which was cleared of slums by the suburban collectorate last week. The home department has requested chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to give it the plot, and the feasibility of the land is being reviewed by the prison department.

The land became available after the suburban collectorate and the BMC demolished over 1,200 shanties along the Ghatkopar-Mankhurd Link Road last week. The plot has been fenced, and officials from the collectorate and the BMC have demanded its immediate allotment for a public utility project to prevent...