The city is set to get a new crematorium by the Hooghly, a first in several decades, with the financial heft of some of the prominent business families here.
The facility will come up next to Dahi Ghat near Hastings on a 92-cottah plot that the port authorities have agreed to hand over to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation on a 30-year lease.
The crematorium, to be built at an investment of around ₹50 crore, will take around two years to complete. It will be built by Prerna Foundation, a non-profit social organisation that counts among its trustees the heads of many prominent business families.
The facility, which will have five wooden and two electric pyres, will be handed over to the KMC for operations. The foundation will be responsible for its management and maintenance.
A KMC official said the Prerna Foundation had approached the civic body to set up a crematorium along the Hooghly.
Given that the port owns the land along the river, the foundation approached them too. The port authorities agreed to part with a land parcel but declined to waive the
lease amount.
“When the KMC refused to pay the lease amount, the Prerna Foundation stepped in. They paid the lease to the KMC through a demand draft, following which the civic body made the payment to the port,” the KMC official said.
The official added that the civic body would operate the crematorium. “The rules say that the municipal body of the town or the city must operate crematoriums. The foundation will set up the crematorium and hand it over to the KMC,” the official said.
Hemant Bangur, chairman of Glosters and a trustee of the Prerna Foundation, said: “It was difficult to get a secluded place abutting the river, but thanks to the port and the KMC, we now have a suitable place to build one.”
Gloster, through Prerna, has also renovated Judges Ghat, which is to be inaugurated by mayor Firhad Hakim on Wednesday.
Radhe Shyam Goenka, founder of Emami and a trustee member of the foundation, said the initiative was meant for the general public. Proximity to the Hooghly will ensure that mourners need not travel far for the immersion of ashes, he added.
Sajjan Bhajanka, chairman of the Prerna Foundation, said there were only four wooden pyres at Nimtala, and bereaved families sometimes had to wait for hours to complete the last rites. He hoped that the new crematorium would lessen the burden on the existing facilities.
“It will be particularly helpful to the people of Alipore, Ballygunje and south Calcutta. Families from central Calcutta will also benefit,” he said.
Bhajanka, who is also chairman of Century Ply, said the foundation had approached the port for another 40-cottah plot for a car park. “We have paid ₹17 crore for the 92-cottah plot. We may need to pay another ₹6 crore for the adjacent area. The construction cost may be ₹30 crore,” he said.
Pawan Tibrewala, secretary of the trust board’s managing committee, said the modern, environment-friendly crematorium would take care of all the needs of bereaved families.