Chitwan. The Intensive Urban and Building Construction Project has handed over various urban infrastructure development projects including electric crematorium constructed at Devghat of Bharatpur Metropolitan City-1 to the KMC today.

At a function organized at Devghat, the project formally handed over the construction of electric crematorium, waiting room, bus park, terminal building and footpath to the metropolis.

According to Project Chief Jhapat Bahadur Thapa, the crematorium and Malami waiting room were completed on August 17, 2082 BS after signing an agreement on January 17, 2018. According to him, the contract amount was Rs 10,36,57,811 and a total of Rs 126,489,784 was spent to complete the construction.

The crematorium has a waiting room on the ground floor and two crematoriums on the first floor. The electric cremation machine has the capacity to cremate a dead body in a maximum of 90 minutes. In addition, a refrigerator system, generator, chimney and other necessary equipment have been installed to store four dead bodies at a time.

The equipment is installed on the upper floor as the water level rises during the rainy season. The building also has toilets, bathrooms and other necessary facilities. Thapa said that if necessary, arrangements can be made for the funeral procession on the ground floor.

Under the project, structures like bus park, terminal building, footpath and other structures have been constructed at different places of the metropolis including Devghat. The total cost of all these projects is around Rs 338 million, according to the project officials. According to Thapa, the project side will support and monitor the operation and maintenance of the crematorium for a year. In addition, necessary training will be provided to the human resources to be sent by the metropolis.

On the occasion, Deputy Mayor of Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Chitrasen Adhikari, expressed the commitment to operate and manage crematorium responsibly. On the occasion, Bharatpur metropolis mayor Renu Dahal said the overall development works were moving ahead as per the concept of model city. He said the metropolis has carried out result-oriented works despite various administrative and technical challenges seen in course of development construction.