2 new funeral vans gathering dust at Balongi crematorium for 6 months

Two brand new funeral vans at the Balongi cremation ground are gathering dust for the past six months. Thanks to the Local Government Department which has not initiated the process for the registration of the vehicles with the Transport Department so as to make them road worthy and help city resident in completing the last journey of their deceased family members.

Concerned residents said the two vehicles, costing more than Rs 50 lakhs, were finally bought after a bureaucratic tussle of one-and-a-half-year and parked at the Balongi crematorium on August 14, 2025.

Since then, they had not moved an inch, residents said. Two more condemned funeral vans are gathering dust on one side of the crematorium for the past five years. But the Local Government Department has not taken the courtesy to scrap or dispose them off.

“It shows how much concern the Local Government Department has for city residents. It takes more than six months to get their vehicles registered. Do senior officials of the Local Government Department and the Municipal Corporation take six months to get their new vehicles registered,” asked a city councillor.

The Balongi facility is one of the two main crematoriums in the city. At present, there are five vehicles available at the crematorium. On an average, 10 to 12 cremations are performed here every day. “In winters, when the rush increases here, residents do not get funeral vans easily. So, ambulances are used to bring bodies here,” said Mohali Deputy Mayor Kuljit Singh Bedi.