TNN | Mar 17, 2011, 12.59am IST

Ashish Sharma, municipal commissioner said, “There have been requests
from citizens living outside PCMC limits asking that they be allowed to
bury their dead pets here. This cannot be allowed. We will, however,
consider giving them permission to use the crematorium.”

“The
pet cemetery in Pimpri is on a plot of 20,000 sq ft. Around 70 per cent
of the plot area has already been used up and the cemetery is likely to
run out of space in the next four months,” said Satish Gore,
veterinarian, PCMC.

“We have kept an area of 5,000 sq ft in the
cemetery to install the crematorium. A provision of Rs 70 lakh has been
made for it in the PCMC’s 2011-12 draft budget. The crematorium will
have the capacity to dispose of dead pets at a rate of 50 kg per hour.
Bids for building and installing the crematorium will be invited in
April. We hope the bidding process and construction will be completed in
four months,” said Gore.

“The process of issuing crematorium
passes will have to be streamlined. Also, we will increase the charges
for disposal of the dead animals, since fuel will be consumed. We will
also be allotting a contract to a private contractor to run and maintain
the crematorium,” Gore added.

He stated that the civic body
may have to consider setting up a mortuary to keep the dead animals. The
pet cemetery came about during the tenure of former mayor Mangala Kadam
and was opened on March 8, 2007. The open land has now been beautified
and so far, 1,161 pets have been buried here. Meanwhile, the PCMC named
the it ‘Chirantan’ on Tuesday.