The civic authorities are drawing up a Rs 6-crore renovation plan for Nimtala burning ghat, in north Calcutta.

“For several years, local councillors, legislators and members of Parliament have been insisting on a renovation scheme for Nimtala ghat, where several famous people, including Rabindranath Tagore, were cremated. We want to execute the project in a befitting manner,” said mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya.

He, however, could not spell out the time-frame of the project.

Though the civic health department looks after the burning ghats, the renovation will be carried out by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC)’s building department, in association with the civil engineering and heritage wings. The funds will come from a private party.

According to a civic estimate, on an average, 70 bodies are cremated at Nimtala ghat every day. Only 12 to 15 of them are cremated on wooden pyres.

The Nimtala ghat scheme is on the drawing board when five other burning ghats — Shiriti Simultala, Kashi Mitra, Garia, Ramakrishna and Kashipur — are in bad shape and cannot provide the basic facilities.

Municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay claimed that the civil engineering department has been directed to prepare a scheme for the facelift of five other burning ghats.

Nimtala and Keoratala, according to the commissioner, are the two most-used burning ghats in and around Calcutta. Shiriti Simultala, on BL Shah Road, is the third most busy ghat.

The renovation will include increase in the number of electric crematoria at Nimtala. There are four now. The number will be raised to eight and the crematoria will be fitted with pollution control devices, said Bandyopadhyay.

Steps will be taken to ensure that smoke and smell from the wooden pyres do not inconvenience visitors. “We are trying to install a device that purifies the smoke from the wooden pyres to some extent,” said the director-general (building), Gorachand Mondol.

A civic official pointed out that the police and the CMC will have to carry out a joint drive to remove encroachments on the path to the burning ghat before the renovation project can be executed.