Electric furnace at Kashi Mitra Ghat to be closed for 10 days

Kolkata: The electric furnace at Kashi Mitra Ghat crematorium at Bagbazar in North Kolkata will be closed for ten days for urgent maintenance work.

The furnaces will be closed from Tuesday morning and the repair work would be completed in ten days, a notification issued by the civic body stated. The wooden furnace at the crematorium will, however, be operational.

It may be mentioned that there were some problems associated with the technology of the electric furnaces that came to the knowledge of KMC a few days ago.

"We will repair this snag completely and for this, the furnace needs to be closed. There will be inconvenience to the people for this temporary closure but we urge the people to cooperate with us," said a senior official of KMC Health department that looks after the maintenance of the crematoriums.

It may be mentioned that it was a year ago when the state Pollution Control Board had pointed out that there is tremendous pollution due to some technical snag at this crematorium, following which it was closed for a day and repair work was done.

This time, the repair work will be done in the best possible way. The entire premises of the burning ghat will also be renovated.

The Kashi Mitra Ghat crematorium performs the last rites of around six bodies on a daily basis.

"These days, people are unwilling to perform the last rites of the deceased in wooden pyres, mainly due to the time factor. Our wooden pyres will be open round the clock. But if somebody wants to perform the last rites in the electric furnaces, he/she will be urged to go to the adjacent Nimtala crematorium," the official said.