Soon, Electric crematorium, ‘green’ platforms at Rasoolabad Ghat

PRAYAGRAJ: The district administration has decided to develop the Rasoolabad cremation ghat of Sangam city as a ‘green cremation site’ given the unprecedented rise in number of cremations in the last two months and complaints regarding inadequate facilities at cremation sites.

The development of the cremation ghat would be done under the Smart City initiative, officials said.

Efforts have begun to set up platforms akin to those existing in Varanasi and Lucknow which use just one fourth of the wood for cremation as compared to the traditional wooden pyre cremations. Besides, authorities will also set up an electric crematorium at this ghat which would bring down the pollution level and save trees, they added.

For the implementation of the project, Prayagraj Nagar Nigam (PNN) chief engineer Satish Kumar, along with project manager consultant of Smart City project, Sanjay Rath, inspected the Rasoolabad ghat on Tuesday evening. The officials also inspected the cremation platforms installed at the ghat. They suggested a number of steps aimed at lessening the pollution and also to make things easy for users coming to this cremation ghat.

“It has been decided that there should be nine platforms at the ghat for the pyres and all will be ‘green cremation’ platforms which use the technique quite similar to electric crematoria, with just the electricity getting replaced by wood. The heat is not allowed to escape from around these platforms and thereby less amount of wood is used,” explained Satish Kumar.

The chief engineer also said that an electric crematorium at this cremation site has been proposed so that people coming for cremation have the option to go for even an eco-friendlier cremation.

“Because of the present technique of cremating bodies, pollution is increasing, and we need to make efforts to curb it. The cremations, on the proposed platform, will use just one-third of the present quantity of wood and thus reduce pollution and also reduce the cost for performing the last rites,” he said.

Besides, the district administration has finalised the land for constructing six more electric crematoria within the city limits. These crematoria are proposed at Kanhaipur, Keralbagh, Mahewa ghat, Arail, Phaphamau and Chatnag. Another electric crematorium is proposed at Shringverpur.

Besides, the directions of the two platforms at the cremation ghat located at Kanaihpur have been rectified. “Earlier these platforms were constructed in an East-West direction because of which people were shying away from using them. Now this has been corrected and the platforms now have a North-South direction,” said the chief engineer.