pune the pimpri chinchwad municipal corporations pet crematorium in pimpri lying unused for over two years due to lack of piped natural gas png is likely to be operational by the yearend the gasoperated crematorium is badly needed because annually about 450 pets are buried at the adjacent chirantan cemetry which has now run out of space the standing committee will meet on october 20 to discuss a proposal to spend rs 1388 lakh to make the pngbased incinerator operational veterinary officer satish gore said the pipeline has been laid till t block of the midc a 550 metre long pipeline will have to be laid to bring this gas to the crematorium which could not be started due to technical problems meanwhile the civic body has conducted successful trials for running the facility on liquefied petroleum gas lpg said gore the veterinary officer however asserted that the crematorium will run on png because it is ecofriendly safe easily available and economical as compared to lpg civic officials said the start of the facility was delayed as the money demanded by the gas company for laying the pipeline was considered too high gore said negotiations were held with the gas company which agreed to waive off rs 8 lakh which are right of use and restoration charges the civic body will restore the land after the pipeline is laid the pet cemetery was created on a 20000 sq ft plot and opened on march 8 2007 the open land has now been beautified with more than 4000 pets alre ady buried herethe crematorium area is about 5000 sq ft and was built at a cost of rs 40 lakh it can handle aweight of 100 kg at a time and is constructed for small animals like dogs cats rabbits and birds a contractor will look after the maintenance we have con sumed all the 15000 sq ft area of the pet cemetery for burial we have started using the open land in the space reserved for the crematorium since we do not have space left said gore if all approvals are received in time the crematorium could start operating by the end of december the burials will stop once the crematorium starts operating said gore