CUTTACK: The lone LPG-run crematorium at Khannagar in Cuttack was rendered defunct on Sunday, hindering cremation of bodies of Covid-19 victims. The Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) had introduced electric furnace system at the Khannagar crematorium in 1980.
Over the years, maintaining it became an expensive affair for the civic body and it remained out of order most of the times. In 2017, the civic body converted the three-decade-old electric unit into an LPG one at a cost of `15 lakh to make cremation cost effective.
The LPG-run crematorium was damaged in the Fani cyclone and became defunct. Though the broken chimney was fixed at the cost of `6 lakh, the damaged gas furnace of the facility could not be repaired.
After lying defunct for one year, the civic body authorities in wake of the Covid-19 pandemic had initiated repair and restoration of the defunct gas furnace at the expenditure of `95,000 with the help of Kolkata-based technicians of HPCL. The crematorium was made functional in May for cremation of Covid victims.
Bodies of around 30 Covid-19 victims have been cremated at the facility so far.
While bodies of two patients were cremated on Saturday morning, another body which reached the crematorium in the evening could not be cremated as the facility developed technical snags. As a result, the body was sent to a crematorium in Bhubaneswar.
While CMC Commissioner could not be contacted, City Health Officer(CHO) Satyabrata Mohapatra said the speed and volume of the flame releasing from the furnace suddenly decreased creating problem in cremating the body. “A junior engineer has been entrusted to coordinate with the technicians of HPCL for repair of the defunct LPG-run furnace system,” said Mohapatra.