KATHMANDU, June 22: The electronic crematorium, which started its service in January at Pashupati area, has gone nonfunctional for the last four days due to technical problems.

"Rain water overflowed into the ground level of the crematorium building and damaged the machine on Sunday," said Kumar Thapa Magar, the in-charge of the crematorium operation unit.

"Since we identified the problem, we are trying to rectify it," he added. 

The crematorium was installed on the bank of Bagmati River by the Pashupati Area Development Trust (PADT) with a total investment of Rs 110 million to reduce the use of traditional wooden pyres.

Member Secretary of the PADT, Govinda Tandan, said that the PADT has also called on mechanics for maintaining the machine. He said that they have been trying to fix the problem within a week.  “It showed that there was technical error in fixing the machine at ground level and we'll now try to rectify it for long term use," said Tandan.

According to Tandan, the number of last rites on the traditional wooden pyres had dropped down by 50 percent after the electronic crematorium came into function.

The crematorium consumes less time than traditional wooden pyres by taking about 45 minutes only to burn a body.