Hooghly district’s Arambagh Municipality will restart a burning ghat lying unused for the last 30 years to cremate the bodies of Covid patients.

The move comes after residents living near the town’s crematorium protested against cremating the bodies of Covid patients who did not belong to the locality.

Subdivisional officer of Arambagh Nripendra Singh, and chairperson of board of administrators of Arambagh Municipality Swapan Nandi, along with the police and senior officials, held a meeting on Monday afternoon to decide on reopening the old crematorium on Pallishree Circus ground.

The SDO and other officials visited the ground on Monday evening and decided to set up a makeshift tin-sheet boundary around the place where bodies would be cremated.

“Some 30 years ago, this place used to be a crematorium. We faced several problems in cremating Covid bodies and so decided to reopen the old crematorium. There should be no objection now,” said Nandi.

Arambagh has so far reported 230 Covid cases and four deaths.

An official said Arambagh town had half a dozen crematoriums, but residents were not ready to allow bodies of ‘outsiders” to be cremated in those. “The old crematorium is far away from any residential locality and we hope there are no objections now,” he added.

Rajesh Choudhuri, a member of the board of administrators in Arambagh Municipality, said the area was deserted and was a dumping yard.