19 engineers to oversee maintenance of furnaces in Pune city

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has appointed 19 engineers at various crematoriums in the city to oversee repair and maintenance of electric/gas furnaces, in order to keep them functioning uninterrupted for cremation of Covid fatalities

Pune: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has appointed 19 engineers at various crematoriums in the city to oversee repair and maintenance of electric/gas furnaces, in order to keep them functioning uninterrupted for cremation of Covid fatalities.

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The civic body has also ordered them to maintain a record of the daily number of Covid fatalities brought to the crematoriums, the number of ambulances with bodies waiting for cremation and the time when furnaces are not occupied.

The order has been issued to facilitate the cremation of Covid bodies and reduce the waiting period.

“These engineers have been appointed at 19 out of 21 crematoriums in the city. Because of the second wave of Covid, the burden on crematoriums has increased. There should be a contact person for the administration to oversee the operations at crematoriums. We should know what are the problems occurring, how many bodies have been cremated, and which crematoriums are overburdened,” said Kunal Khemnar, additional municipal commissioner.

The appointed engineers have also been instructed to make sure furnaces are functional. In order to keep furnaces functional without interruptions, a gap of 30-50 minutes between two cremations has been advised. Periodically, after 15 days, furnaces are closed and chimneys cleaned.

Heating coils in electric furnaces and gas burners in gas furnaces will be checked.

As HT has reported earlier, the number of Covid-19 fatalities cremated in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad for the past two weeks, has far outnumbered the official death toll being reported by the state health department.

Officials from PMC involved in monitoring the crematoria claimed that 170 bodies have been cremated each day in the past one week. Of these 170 bodies, 120, on average, are Covid victims.

PMC has taken various steps to reduce the waiting period for cremation of Covid victims. It has allowed cremations of Covid bodies at all crematoriums in the city. Also, the system of online cremations has been started. Many volunteers have been helping the civic officials at the crematoria to reduce the load. “The recent measures have reduced the load and decreased the waiting period,” Khemnar said.