Tenders invited for Victoria prison PPP

The state government of Victoria has launched an Expressions of Interest process as it seeks to deliver Ravenhall Prison, a new 500-bed facility.

Expressions of Interest (EoI) have been invited for the Ravenhall Prison project in the Australian state of Victoria.

The public-private partnership (PPP) will see the private partner take responsibility for the design, construction, finance, maintenance and operation (including custodial services) of the new 500-bed medium security facility at Ravenhall, a rural location 22 kilometres west of Melbourne’s central business district.

Ravenhall is already home to the Metropolitan Remand Centre, a maximum security remand facility with 673 inmates which opened in April 2006 and is run by Corrections Victoria, part of the Victorian government’s Department of Justice.

Planning for the new prison, which was included in the 2012/13 state budget, is already well underway. The facility, which will be built on land already owned by the government, will allow for future expansion if and when required subject to necessary approvals.

“The new men’s prison at Ravenhall will not only add much-needed capacity to Victoria’s prison system, but will also provide jobs in Melbourne’s west,” said Andrew McIntosh, Victoria’s Minister for Corrections, in a statement.

The deadline for EoI submissions is the 18 July 2013, while the project is expected to be completed in 2017.