PESHAWAR, Oct 22: The NWFP government in collaboration with the federal ministry of science and technology would set up Prison Information Management System to computerise the jails in the province, sources said.

Officials told Dawn here on Monday that the provincial government and the ministry had jointly designed the system at an estimated cost of about Rs8.7 million.

The provincial home and tribal affairs department would bear 25 per cent of the cost of the project while the rest would be born by the federal government.

The sources said the first phase of the project had been approved and the scheme would take 12 months for completion.

Under the proposed plan all prisons in the province would be computerised. The province has 21 prisons, including the three central jails, three judicial lock-ups, seven district jails, and eight sub-jails, which house about 9,000 prisoners.

The provincial government is shifting the Peshawar Central Jail to Nowshera and the construction of the new prison is in progress at Jalozai.

The sources said the prisons would be linked with the provincial home and tribal affairs department and the management of every prison would have direct access to the database.