Soon, savour ‘steaming hot’ langar at Golden Temple

GS Paul

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 23

The preparation of langar at the Golden Temple would now be more efficient, eco-friendly and cost-effective.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has planned to introduce steam mechanism to cook the langar items, on the lines of one introduced at Gurdwara Shaheed Ganj Sahib Baba Deep Singh at Chattiwind Chowk in Amritsar in 2017.

On an average, the Golden Temple’s kitchen feeds a a whopping number of devotees — nearly 60,000 daily.

Keeping in view the round-the-clock operation, a high-capacity steam boiler plant would be installed at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee langar hall kitchen at the Golden Temple complex.

The boiler can be operated through burning of wood logs, compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The steam to be generated in the boiler will be circulated through pipes to the special vessels, which store water on the surface that upon being heated cook food. Each vessel will have a capacity to prepare at least two and a half quintal of food at a time. The new methodology will further help sewadars' cook and serve food in time. Usually, a majority of the working staff is made up of volunteers.

SGPC president Bibi Jagir Kaur said the mechanism would not only curtail the fuel cost and the preparation time by half in comparison with the traditional cooking method, but also won’t emit any heat or smoke in the langar preparation room.

The ‘sewa’ (voluntary service) of setting up the project has been assigned to Sant Baba Baljinder Singh, head of Gurdwara Rara Sahib.

He said the equipment would be imported from Germany. “Apart from being efficient and cost-effective, the steam methodology helps maintaining the nutrition value of the food. The methodology has the facility of auto-cut once the boiler reaches the requisite temperature,” he said.

Since the work on providing the CNG supply line to the Golden Temple is underway, it would be more efficient to run the steam cooking system in the shrine kitchen.

More efficient, cost-effective

•  A high-capacity steam boiler plant will be installed at Sri Guru Ram Dass Jee langar hall kitchen
• The boiler can be operated through burning of wood logs, CNG or LPG
• The steam to be generated in the boiler will be circulated through pipes to the special vessels, which store water on the surface that upon being heated cook food
• Each vessel will have a capacity to prepare at least two-and-a-half-quintal food at a time

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.