Madurai
Madurai
Corporation has started work on installing three gasifiers at the two crematoriums in the city to meet the demand for cremating more bodies in the wake of rising COVID-19 deaths. Two gasifiers will be installed at Thathaneri crematorium and one at the Moolakarai facility.
City Engineer S. Arasu said the new gasifiers are being installed to reduce the burden of the crematoriums. “An order has been issued to procure three gasifiers for ₹30 lakh each. These new gasifiers are expected to be commissioned within 10 days,” he said.
Both the crematoriums, with two gasifiers each, are functioning round-the-clock to cremate COVID-9 bodies.
A source at Thathaneri crematorium said around 50 bodies were dealt with every day. There were 10 freezer boxes at the crematorium to keep the COVID-19 bodies “But COVID-19 bodies keep on coming. So we issue tokens to the family members and usually they have to wait for around six hours to cremate the body of their loved ones,” he said. The lack of basic facilities at the crematorium also adds to the difficulties faced by the families, he added.
Overheated
The second gasifier at Thathaneri was under repair and set right only recently. Since these gasifiers are functioning continuously, the machinery gets overheated. “One of the gasifiers has been repaired several times due to over-usage,” he said.
Moolakarai crematorium handles around 40 COVID-19 bodies every day. As in Thathaneri, the families are forced to wait for many hours to cremate the COVID-19 bodies.
A Corporation official said there are instances where an ambulance even brings three COVID-19 bodies to these crematoriums. “Hence, new gasifiers have to be installed at the earliest,” he said.
