Mumbai, June 24 (IANS) In a unique initiative, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon give an 'environment-friendly' funeral to the departed at 10 Hindu Shamshan-bhoomi (crematoria) dotting Mumbai, officials said here on Monday.

After testing a pilot project for almost five years at the Sion Hindu Crematorium, the BMC will now implement it at 9 more locations (total 10), of the 52 other Shamshan-bhoomi in the country's congested commercial capital.

Guided by the BMC Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani and Additional Municipal Commissioner Ashwini Joshi, a team of the Mechanical & Engineering Department comprising Chief Engineer Krishna Perekar, Executive Engineer Amal Mohite, Deputy CE Anil Damborekar and Assistant CE Suresh Patil, is now executing the project which will be completed in the next 6-8 months.

Explaining the highlights, Perekar said that the new eco-friendly pyre system technology will ensure huge savings in the wood used for the cremation of bodies, plus reduce smoke and particles emanating from it, while completing all the accompanying religious rituals as desired by the relatives/mourners.

"We shall provide a trolley in which the body will be placed and covered with wood, all the rites shall be performed as per the wishes of the family/relatives. Then, the body shall be wheeled into the furnace where it will be consigned to ashes," Perekar told IANS.

This will eliminate the need for cremating the mortal remains of the deceased on an open funeral pyre – as is being done presently – and prevent the thick smoke from spreading directly into the open air, disturbing the people living in the vicinity.

Patil said that after the pilot project was launched in Sion (2020), it elicited good public response and now the same system will be implemented in 9 more Shamshan-bhoomi dotting the 24 BMC wards in the current phase.

Compared with the requirement of around 350-400 kg of firewood per corpse, the new system will do the same job in barely 100-125 kg of wood -- entailing huge savings for the civic body, and in turn for the tax-payers, added Perekar.

Besides Sion, the eco-friendly funeral system is coming up at the crematoriums like: Bhoiwada, Gowari in Wadala, Vaikunthdham in Reay Road, Tagore Nagar in Vikhroli, Deonar Colony in Govandi, Amardham Postal Colony in Chembur, Oshiwara in Jogeshwari, Shivdham in Goregaon and Babhai in Borivali west.

Each Smashan-bhoomi in Mumbai has multiple funeral pyres where, on an average, around 10-12 funerals take place daily, plus at the 10 electric crematoriums and 18 gas crematoria in the city.

The officials said that the amount of wood that can be saved daily and annually would be stupendous besides controlling the air pollution as the smoke from the furnace shall be spewed out of 30-metre tall chimneys.

The officials pointed out that the combustion system is designed to provide maximum energy and minimise the release of the smoke and fumes into the atmosphere through the tall chimneys, as most Shamshan-bhoomi are in close proximity or within thickly populated residential areas.

This particular arrangement also produces the least amount of smoke, plus water scrubbers and a separator system removes particulates and toxic gases from it, in the first of its kind initiative in Maharashtra, with potential to be implemented in other big cities.

(Quaid Najmi can be contacted at: q.najmi@ians.in)