Bermuda’s first crematorium, located in St David’s, could be fully operational by April.

Amis Memorial Chapel, which will run the facility, says that construction crews have made excellent progress since initial work began last August.

Leon Amis told The Royal Gazette that the establishment of the island’s first crematorium would signal the end of a long battle dating back to 1984.

“I’m very pleased with how it is going,” Mr Amis said. “It’s been a long time coming so it’s great to see the progress.

“The guys are moving along very well. They have said that we should be up and running by April.”

The structure and equipment for Bermuda’s first crematorium on the previously vacant land off Wallers Point Road has been specially constructed in the United States and will be shipped to the island later in the year.

The retort, which is the machine that does the cremation, will be coming from Florida, while the structure itself is being made in Colorado. All the machinery is state-of-the art and it will satisfy a large gap in the market

Mr Amis added: “The structure of the building is already on site, while the retort leaves Florida on February 17.

“It should then be arriving in Bermuda the following Tuesday on February 22.”

The project will involve the construction of the crematorium itself, an above-ground liquid petroleum gas tank and 8ft security fence on the land, which is owned by the Bermuda Land Development Company.

The most recent planning application to build the crematorium was submitted in May 2015 and was the fourth time that Amis had tried to get permission to build such a facility in Bermuda. Previously, the funeral home proposed building a crematorium at Well Bottom in Warwick, next to its funeral home in Warwick, and most recently at Industrial Road in Southampton.

However, all three proposals were rejected by the Development Applications Board.