About

The Cellular Jail, also known as 'Kālā Pānī', was a British colonial prison in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It stands on the edge of Phoenix Bay near the southern tip of the South Andaman Island. The prison was used by the colonial government of India for the purpose of exiling and often, executing, criminals and political prisoners.

The prison complex was constructed between 1896 and 1906. The building was made of puce-colored bricks brought from Burma.
The building had seven wings, each about 140m long, at the center of which was a tower that was used by guards to keep watch on the inmates. The wings radiated from the tower in straight lines, in a hub-and-spokes model. The format was based on Jeremy Bentham's idea of the panopticon. Today only two of the seven wings remain in their entirety, along with parts of two other wings. The remaining three wings have been decommissioned and razed.

Each of the seven wings had three stories. The roofs of the wings are flat and feature battlements along its length. There were a total of 696 cells. Each cell was 4.5m by 2.7m in size with a ventilator located at a height of 3 metres. The spokes were so designed such that the face of a cell in a spoke faced the read of cells in the adjacent spoke, thus enhancing the solitary nature of confinement.
There were no dormitory accommodations in the jail.
The central guard tower in the jail is an independent hexagonal structure. At the roof level, it has an arched entrance on each wall and a surrounding platform with bridges connecting to the roof of each of the seven radial sections. A short flight of stairs leads up to an observatory deck which commands a 360° view of the premises.

An Administrative building stands in the front of the radial jail structure. It is a 2-storeyed structure with two tall towers flanking the main entrance. The towers are capped by circular observatory rooms. The ground floor has a series of windows with arched lintels facing outwards, and the upper floor has a corridor with doors of the offices opening out on to a balcony overlooking the front.

The Gobind Ballabh Pant Hospital now occupies the space where the demolished radial arms of the jail once stood.