Hyderabad: Graveyards go hi-tech with Wi-fi

Hyderabad: Graveyards will get Wi-Fi to telecast last rites on social networking sites for relatives of deceased living abroad or out of the state. Ironically, many graveyards are encroa-ched and there is a need for compound walls now. The GHMC and Phoenix Foundation have come up with a pollution-free, greener modernised graveyard near Jubilee Hills, Road No. 45. The graveyard called ‘Mahaprasthanam’ spreading across 3.7 acres has been constructed with a budget of `3 crore which includes cafeteria, Wi-Fi, shower bathrooms, lockers and modernised electric crematorium. Commissioner and special officer GHMC Somesh Kumar said, Mahaprasthanam has been developed to provide a clean and green environment with sufficient number of piers, an electric pier, storage rooms, restrooms, washrooms, on-site traditional pandit, flower arrangement, car parking and many more facilities. Most important is the live streaming of the entire process with the help of Wi-Fi connectivity. Mahaprasthanam is yet to be opened. Parties performing funerals will be charged a nominal fee to perform the last rites. This project has been taken up under Private Public Partnership. The GHMC is also planning to come up with 30 more such graveyards for which proposals are under process. Close to 60 per cent of graveyards in Greater Hyderabad do not have compound walls, paving the way for encroachments. Several cases of encroachments are pending in courts. None of the graveyards have basic amenities and minimum necessities, including storerooms, public toilets, bathrooms, water, street lighting, pavements, inadequate burning platforms, sitting platforms and parking place. The GHMC has 18 circles in its limits and it is proposed to have two graveyards/crematoriums for development, totalling 36.