The south Indian city of Chennai is planning to videotape and webcast Catholic funerals for the benefit of overseas mourners unable to attend, the city's cemeteries board said on Friday.
"We are talking to a few software companies to undertake this project," said Bosco Alagar Raj, the treasurer of the Madras Cemeteries Board, which still uses the former Anglicised version of the city's name.
"A Singapore company has given us its proposal. Some Indian firms too have approached us. We are assessing their capacity and will take a final decision pretty soon."
Raj said the board would charge a fee for family members abroad to register to view a funeral online on the board's website. "We will be launching this service within a couple of months. When we announced the proposal there was overwhelming support from the Christian community," said Raj.
"They are happy that by this service the last rites of their near and dear ones can be preserved digitally for eternity. It is a noble application of science to help us stay close to our relatives even after they depart."
Some 250,000 people in the city of seven million are Catholics who bury their dead in one of the city's three cemeteries. India's majority Hindus cremate their dead.
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