Darjeeling is all set to get an electric crematorium soon with the foundation stone laid for such a
project at the cemetery here today.
The Darjeeling Municipality Chairman Dipen Thakuri maintained that the this was a long awaited project which though had started but could not be completed. He said that once it started functioning it would prove to be a great help to people, along with it also being environment friendly as less wood would be used.
The civic body chairman said that the cost of the project is about 3 crore 50 lakhs with 50 percent of the civil work to be borne by the Municipality Engineering Division and 50 percent of the electricity part to be
borne by the PWD.
Adding to that, the Darjeeling Municipality councilor of ward no 17, Nitesh Gurung said that work for the electric crematorium had started in the year 1999-2000 but could not be completed. He said that the main reason behind it was that during that time, it had been decided that the crematorium would be made by the Darjeeling Planters Association in partnership with the Municipality Engineering Division at a cost of 1 crore 20 lakhs with both of them having to bear 50 percent of the cost.
He said that work had been started with the share provided by the state government but the association had not fulfilled their end of the bargain resulting in the electric crematorium remaining unfinished. He also said experts have been called to inspect the viability of the old structure where the construction had started.
