Even the dead have to wait for a decent and dignified cremation in the twin-city. In a shocking incident, the half-burnt body of a deceased (name withheld) remained inside the furnace for close to 72 hours after the LPG-powered unit ran out of gas at the crematorium run by the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC).
The body was brought to the MBMC’s crematorium located in Bhayandar (west). The eco-conscious family members voluntarily opted for an environmentally friendly funeral for the departed soul. After the final rituals, the body was placed on the conveyor belt which carried it into the gas furnace.
MBMC's crematorium | FPJ Photo
However, the furnace stopped working in-between after the cylinders ran out of gas. It took more than two days for the civic administration to refill the cylinders following which the body was fully cremated. While the civic chief was unavailable for his comments, an official confirming the incident requested anonymity and said, “The contract of the agency appointed to refill the gas cylinders had ended. While necessary refill arrangements have been made to ensure such cases are not repeated, piped gas connections will soon be made available for uninterrupted supply of gas.”
The incident has yet again exposed that maintenance of the eco-friendly LPG-powered at crematoriums and awareness towards environment-friendly measures, is not a priority in the work agenda of the civic administration.
This, despite the fact that there has been increasing acceptability for the green cremation system to dispose of mortal remains. For traditionally cremating a body, nearly 300 to 350 kg of wood is required for the open pyre which takes nearly three hours for disposal while the LPG version takes less than half the time. While 24 gas cylinders together supply fuel for cremation, the gas consumed is a little more than one cylinder per body.
