The Dhaka City Corporation has decided to sell a Tk 3 crore electric cremator at Postogola crematorium as it remained out of order for 21 years, said the corporation officials.
The corporation sources said the device was the only of its kind in the country which had gone out of order just a
few weeks after being installed at the crematory.
The chief social welfare officer Khandker Millatul Islam told New Age that he was unable to give any information about the cremator as the crematorium was maintained by the corporation's regional office of zone-1.
When approached, the zone's regional executive officer Bimal Chandra Das said that the electric cremator could not be used in its full capacity as very few dead bodies arrive at the crematory a day.
He said that daily one or two bodies arrived at Postogola crematorium on an average while the device could be cost effective if 20-25 bodies arrived a day because the cremator consumed a lot of electricity.
'I think, it has not been wise on the part of the corporation to install such an expensive device,' he said.
Bimal Chandra Das said that a few days ago the corporation had taken a decision to sell components of the device as they were decaying day by day.
The corporation also took a decision in principle to install two gas burners at the Postogola crematory, he added.
'The DCC has already invited tender for installing the gas burners but got no response yet as there is hardly any company experienced in operating gas burners at crematoria,' he said.
The crematorium's caretaker Ratan Das told New Age that the corporation had set up the device in 1990 to modernise the process of cremation.
'The device took about four hours to heat up and another 30 to 40 minutes to burn a body and as a result we had to pay a high electricity bill,' he said.
Ratan Das also said frequent power outages interrupted the burning process contributing to the increased electricity bill.
'Charge for cremation of a body is between Tk 1,500 and Tk 2,000 while most of the families could not afford the expenses,' he said.
He said that despite repeated reminder, the corporation had not taken any steps to solve the problem.
Source: New Age
