The 20-year-long wait of the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) to install an electric crematorium on the temple premises is over. The long-cherished plan materialised on Friday with a ground-breaking ceremony organised by the PADT at Pashupatinath.
Khagendra Prasad Prasai, Minister for Federal Affairs, Constituent Assembly, Parliamentary Affairs and Culture, laid the foundation stone of the crematorium. An India-based company has won the tender for supplying the machinery. However, another bidding process for a building to house the machinery is underway. PADT Treasurer Narottam Vaidya said the bidding process, now in the final stage, will be completed in a week. Regarding machinery, all arrangements are over with order for the incinerator remaining.
The crematorium is estimated to cost between Rs 60 and 70 million. According to PADT Member Secretary Sushil Nahata, it will take 15 days to start constructing the crematorium house. “We are selecting the most eligible bidder,” he said. “Process will complete in 15 days and construction work will follow.” The crematorium will be located near the Ring Road on the south of Aryaghat.
The facility will help reduce pollution created by the burning of bodies on pyres. “Besides, the new system will control deforestation,” said Mod Raj Dottel, secretary at the culture ministry. “The machine will turn the corpse into ashes without causing much harm to environment. The process is not only eco-friendly but religiously adoptable too.”
According to Vaidya, once the electric system is installed it will take only 40 minutes to incinerate a body. The traditional method of burning the body by using firewood takes more than three hours. The plan, however, is not new. PADT officials had tried to introduce such a crematorium 20 years ago as well, but the idea was opposed by Hindu worshippers on the ground that they would be prevented from performing traditional funeral rites.
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