Koper - The construction of a new prison for Ljubljana, which will be located on the outskirts of the city in Dobrunje, will start this month, Justice Minister Dominika Švarc Pipan announced on Friday. The contract has been signed and the works are scheduled to be completed in 2025.

"I'm very happy to be able to confirm that after years of promises, I signed the contract on 18 August," she said during a visit to the Koper prison.

The Dobrunje prison will replace the existing incarceration facility right in the centre of the city, in the Kodeljevo borough.

The new facility is expected to alleviate overcrowding across the entire prison system.

"Prisons work best when about 80% of capacities are occupied ... At present the rate is 110%," Švarc Pipan said.

The Ljubljana prison is at 123% of capacity, according to figures recently shared with the STA by the Prison Administration.

The new prison will be able to house 388 inmates and will include facilities that the current prison does not have, for example rooms for leisure activities, education, psychological treatment and family visits.

It will be built by a consortium comprising the three largest Slovenian construction companies, Kolektor Koling, CGP and Pomgrad, at a cost of just under EUR 73 million.