Four more crematoriums in the city and on its fringes will be used for cremating people who have died from Covid-19, the state municipal affairs department has ordered.

The new cremation ghats are the Siriti Smashan, Garia Mahasmashan, and the ones at Rajpur-Sonarpur and Baruipur. Till Thursday, the cremation of people dying from Covid-19 was being done at Dhapa, Nimtala and Birjunala crematoriums.

A senior official of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) said they were also looking for a new burial ground. At present, people dying from Covid are buried at the Bagmari burial ground

Senior officials at the CMC said increasing the number of cremation ghats had become necessary to avoid delay in cremations as the number of daily deaths was high.

“...the Covid body cremation service presently being undertaken at Dhapa, Birjunala and Nimtala needs to be extended to the burning ghats at Garia Mahasashan (two chullis), Siriti Smashan, Rajpur-Sonarpur and Barui-pur…to release the excessive workload particularly at Dhapa crematorium,” the order read.

The cremation at the newly added crematoriums will be done between midnight and 5am. “After 5am, we will sanitise the pyres and cremate the non-Covid bodies...,” said a CMC official.

CMC sources said there were enough hearse vans to carry the dead but the delay happened because the crematoriums were not being able to burn the bodies and a backlog was building up.

An official of AMRI Hospitals said the civic body was taking between 16 and 24 hours to remove a body of a person who died from Covid in their hospitals. A month back it used to take between eight and 12 hours. “As the number of deaths has increased, they need more time to take away a body,” said the official.

Up to six family members are allowed to visit the crematorium, an CMC official said. “The hospitals inform us in case of a death and we send our hearse vans to pick up the body. The family members are allowed to have a last look,” said the CMC official.

Oxygen arrest

The enforcement branch of Calcutta police arrested A.Nangalia from Howrah on Thursday for alleged selling oxygen cylinders online without checking a doctor’s prescription or issuing any receipt against payment.