LAHORE: Starting from Lahore, the Punjab government intends to establish model graveyards, Shehr-i-Khamoshan, all over the province, providing all modern burial and related services under one roof.

Initially, sources said on Saturday, model graveyards would be established in Lahore and other big cities in the province including Sargodha, Multan, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad.

In Lahore, the first graveyard is being set up at over 89-kanal and 10-marla land in Mauza Rakh Cheddu near Ferozepur Road. And the ground breaking is expected in the last week of Ramazan. Another piece of 500-kanal land has been identified at the Lahore-Sheikhupura border.

Land has also been identified in Multan and the Board of Revenue has issued orders to transfer it to the authorities concerned.

Idea is being materialised owing to shrinking space

The project has been conceived by the Chief Minister’s Special Monitoring Unit, which is headed by Salman Sufi, after finding that the existing graveyards are in a shambles due to poor management. There is no proper mechanism for citizens to transport the dead body, bathe or preserve in case of a delayed burial, there is no land available in the heart of Lahore and allocation of land for this purpose is becoming harder by the day.

The designed model graveyards will provide toll-free helpline for proper burial assistance by the graveyard, hearse service, shuttle service to transport the grieving family, body bathing arrangement, funeral prayer section, mortuary to preserve the body for those waiting for their relatives from overseas.

There will be strict landscaping protocols, ground-level graves with no structure on top of them, standard uniform gravestone design, properly allocated grave sites with adequate distance between the graves, walking paths to reach the graves, fully grassed graveyard, benches on the outskirts of graveyards, zero external intervention from any company or vendor.

Option will be available for reserving an entire plot for family. The management of graveyards including landscaping may be outsourced. There will be an interface between graveyard registry and Nadra, a separate cremation place for Hindus/Sikhs, and hearse and shuttle services for them.

Sources said tenders had already been placed in media to seek expression of interest for landscaping and building construction in Lahore’s model graveyard. A meeting had been held with prospective donors to get assistance other than monetary in introducing the hearse and shuttle services.

They said a sub-committee of philanthropists had been constituted, work started on establishing toll-free helpline and developing the linked software in collaboration with the Punjab Information Technology Board. SOPs (standard operating procedures) for all the model graveyards had also been formed and finalised.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2015

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