A detention centre for illegal foreigners till they are deported is coming up at Nelamangala in Karnataka’s Bengaluru Rural district, a police official said on Saturday.

“A state-run hostel is being converted into a detention centre to keep illegal foreign nationals for deportation to their respective countries,” Bengaluru Rural Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohan Kumar told IANS.

Nelamangala is about 40km northwest of Bengaluru towards Tumakuru on the national highway #4 towards Pune and Mumbai.

The building will be modified to suit the needs of a detention centre and fortified for fool-proof security, with closed-circuit television cameras (CCTVs), floodlights, barbed fence and a surveillance system to monitor the movement of detainees.

To be the first of its kind in the southern state, the centre is strategically located, as it is nearer to the Bengaluru international airport at Devanahalli in the same district for early deportation.

“It is early to say when it will be ready for making it operational and housing the illegal foreign nationals. For security reasons and space constraints, the government has decided to locate the detention centre at Nelamangala, which is closer to Bengaluru,” a district official told IANS.

State Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai has, however, said that the detention centre would be operational soon.

Bommai has favoured having a National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Karnataka like Assam to detect, identify and deport foreign nationals like Bangladeshis, overstaying in the state, especially in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Mangaluru, Gulbarga and Bidar.

Ruling BJP Lok Sabha member from Bangalore Central told a national news channel on Friday that as there were many illegal Bangladeshis living in the state, especially Bengaluru, the detention centre would enable the police to detain them for early deportation.

Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has reportedly sought plot in Navi Mumbai to build a detention centre to house illegal immigrants.

Over a week after the publication of final Assam National Register of Citizens (NRC) list, the Maharashtra Home Ministry had reportedly written to the City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), which is the planning authority for Navi Mumbai, and sought a three-acre plot in Nerul for the detention centre.

The final National Register of Citizens (NRC) list in Assam was published on August 31, including names of 3.1 crore people and leaving out 19 lakh names.

The Ministry of Home Affairs is planning to implement the National Citizenship Register throughout the country. The ministry had issued a notification on July 31, 2019, where it mentioned that the Central government has decided to prepare and update the population register in the rest of India other than the state of Assam.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had earlier said that the centre will identify and deport all the illegal immigrants and infiltrators from the country.

Shah minced no words in reaffirming that the NRC will not be restricted to Assam, but will be implemented across the length and breadth of the country.

(With agency inputs)