The much-awaited eco-friendly crematorium is eyeing a June debut at Parvati Ghat in Bistupur.

With the nationwide lockdown nearing end, the managing committee of the ghat is hopeful about the commissioning of the Rs 20 lakh unit behind the Kali temple inside the crematorium.

Barring the shed, the necessary equipment for the pollution-free burning unit is in place. A Calcutta-based agency is executing the project, the only of its kind in Jharkhand.

The ghat functionaries are hopeful that the lockdown would not stretch beyond May 3 and that the crematorium would start functioning from June onwards.

Dipendra Bhatt, general secretary of the ghat committee, said but for the lockdown the project would have been completed. “We were helpless because of the lockdown. We had to discontinue the project since there was no other option,” he said.

According to Bhatt, they would waste no time in getting the incomplete work done once the lockdown is lifted.

“The necessary equipment, including chimney and channels, are in place. Only a shed needs to be put in place. This would not take long,” Bhatt said.

Logs of wood inside the burning chamber would be compressed and a blower would assist in quick burning of the pyre, he explained. The remains will pass through the channel inside the chamber and only smoke will come out of the chimney.

“The remains will settle down after passing through the water channel. There will be no scope for particles to get released in the air. The new unit will consume less quantity of wood and take lesser time to fully burn the bodies,” Bhatt said.

Ghat committee members and well-wishers have contributed funds for the unit.

Two furnaces are used to cremate bodies at Parvati Ghat, which is located near the Kharkai bridge. Apart from the furnaces, bodies are cremated by adopting traditional methods of using wooden logs on two separate platforms under a tin shed. On average, eight to 10 bodies come for cremation at the ghat daily.