New Delhi, Feb 19 (IANS) The country's largest oil producer Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will launch a programme for setting up crematoriums that will have more energy efficient pyres, an official Friday said.

'In a country like India where Hindus are in majority, cremations are mostly on wooden pyres. Keeping this in mind one of the CSR (corporate social responsibility) initiatives that we will launch very soon is the Mokshada Green Cremation initiative,' ONGC's CSR chief A.B. Chakraborty told IANS on the sidelines of an event here.

The green crematoriums -- 30 initially -- will be established in ONGC's field operating areas in collaboration with the local municipalities, Chakroborty said.

The ONGC official had also made a fleeting reference to the project while giving a presentation at the event in observance of World Day of Social Justice (Feb 20) at the UN office here Friday.

'The main aim of this project is to give access to efficient energy to the society. In these green crematoriums, one would save 60-70 percent wood and a fourth of the burning time per cremation. This project is in the final stages of approval at ONGC,' he said.

The public sector undertaking giant spent over Rs.1.61 billion (Rs.161 crore) on its CSR initiatives in the last fiscal year.

This time, the company is mulling over a Rs.200 crore budget, still around Rs.100 crore short of the two percent target that the state-run companies should have for CSR expenditure, Chakraborty said.

'We have allocated Rs.9.5 crore on the green crematorium initiative. It will take some three to four months for the first few to be set up in some areas of Assam and Gujarat where we have operations. Subsequently we will set up the remaining of the 30 in a span of three years,' the official added.

Once the project kicks off, ONGC will also look at tie-ups in cities like Mumbai and Ahmedabad.