Making space for more as last-rite facilities stretched like never before

New Delhi: On Sunday, the municipal corporations conducted 290 Covid-protocol funerals till 6pm. With the surge in the deaths caused by the coronavirus, the last-rite facilities in the city are getting overstretched. The public health department announced on Monday that funeral platforms reserved for Covid patients in the city crematoria are now being increased to 505.
Around 75% of the platforms in the major cremation facilities under the south and north corporations now stand reserved for the Covid deceased.The biggest crematorium in the capital at Nigambodh Ghat has started building new platforms to meet the sudden demand. An official said that 20 new platforms are being created to take Nigambodh’s provisions to 140 traditional pyre platforms. The health officer of North Delhi Municipal Corporation issued the capacity expansion order on Monday.
As per the new arrangement, the civic body has estimated the daily need for the Covid-protocol cremations at 230. An official said the bulk of this load will be borne by Nigambodh Ghat, where 131 dead bodies can be cremated now every day on 77 wood pyres and six CNG furnaces. “Also, 15 of the 20 platforms in Panchkuian Road, 15 of the 22 in Inderpuri, 12 of the 15 in Beri Wala Bagh, 15 of the 25 in Wazirpur and 42 of the 52 funeral platforms in Mangolpuri will be used for Covid cremation,” the official disclosed. These now have a cumulative 88 funeral pyres for normal cremations. On Sunday, Nigambodh received 48 bodies for Covid-protocol cremations, followed by 23 in Mangolpuri and 12 in Panchkuian Road.
In the case of South Delhi Municipal Corporation, the Covid-cremation capacity has been increased to 234 bodies per day, with 70 platforms slots reserved in Punjabi Bagh, 34 in Hastsal, 30 at Lodhi Road, 20 in Sarai Kale Khan and 30 in Lal Kuan near Badarpur. SDMC has also decided to use the two newly constructed CNG cremation facilities in Green Park and Subhash Nagar for the final rites of 12 Covid patients at each every day. According to funeral data released by SDMC, the Punjabi Bagh Shamshan Bhumi is getting the second-highest number of Covid bodies after Nigambodh Ghat with 56 bodies cremated on Sunday. The Lodhi Road electric crematorium handled 34 bodies on the same day.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation has the capacity to manage 41 bodies of Covid-19 patients in Seemapuri, Ghazipur and Karkardooma. The Seemapuri cremation ground was able to see to 22 bodies of Covid-19 patients on Sunday, followed by 15 in Ghazipur and three in Karkardooma. The eastern civic body is also planning to install a CNG furnace in the Karkardooma complex.