GUWAHATI: On July 13, Guwahati Development Department minister, Siddhartha Bhattacharya, inaugurated the electric crematorium at Ramkrishna Mission Path, Ulubari, having two furnaces, to facilitate the burning of two bodies simultaneously. Reportedly, the furnace takes around an hour to char an adult body.
The electric crematorium project was undertaken by the GMDA at an estimated cost at Rs. 509.41 lakhs, and installation of the same was done by a Chandigarh based company which has also reportedly trained the handlers and workers.
The project was initially taken up by GMDA in 2016 and had its completion date by January 2018. After much delay, the same was finally made “functional” given the rise in COVID-19 mortality states in the city.
On 6th August last, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) that is responsible for the management of the crematorium issued a press release stating that the first human body has been cremated in the electric facility.
However, ever since then, the electric crematorium has not been used a second time.
Senior journalist Mrinal Talukdar tweeted on 21st August last, “Tried to cremate the body of friend’s elder sister in the electric crematorium at Ulubari, inaugurated with a lot of noise on July 13, 2020. Could not because Govt has not appointed a caretaker yet nor the AMC of the machine is done.”
Now even as the district administration has recorded a long list of Covid victims waiting to be cremated, the electric crematorium has not been put to use.
Manojit Bujarbarua, Executive Engineer of GMC, which is the responsible authority for managing the crematorium, speaking to G Plus said, “There is no problem with the electric crematorium. It’s fully functional but people are not willing to cremate in that and opt for the more traditional way.”