PRISONERS can breathe a sigh of relief at Bahrain's biggest jail with the installation of new air conditioning units.

It follows complaints over poor air conditioning at the Interior Ministry's Reform and Rehabilitation Centre (Jaw Prison).

Authorities have responded by installing 12 free-standing air conditioning units and large generators to power them as an emergency measure, while custom-built large air conditioners will be installed in the next few days.

"The large new units, higher in tonnage to the existing units, were ordered four months ago and are now being installed," said centre acting head and head of its administration and finance section Captain Jassim Al Mulla.

"Five are already in place and working, while six more are being set up now." He told the GDN all of the new units will be up and running in the next two weeks. He explained that it was taking four months to instal the new units because they have to be specially designed and installed. However, while he acknowledged that the old system needed replacing - particularly at the Al Noor Unit - he denied claims that conditions at the prison were uncomfortable.

"Yes, there was some difference since the units are old and needed to be replaced, but at no point was it so bad that it became uncomfortable," he said. Interior Ministry Works Directorate design head Major Adnan Al Qattan said some people were making false claims about conditions in the prison.

"We work all the time to make sure there are no complaints," he said. "Even then, there are elements that try and take advantage of a situation and spread misinformation." Referring to some media reports that claimed there was no air conditioning, he said these were based on a period between the old units being shut down and the new ones being installed.

"For a very short time between the process, there was less cooling and it was made into a report there was no air conditioning," he said. "However, at no point - even now - was it not uncomfortable." mandeep@gdn.com.bh