Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated the “country’s first smog tower” at Connaught Place in Delhi, one of the most polluted cities in the world, on Monday and said it will prove to be a path-breaking milestone and many such structures can be installed in the capital if the pilot project yields results.
“This is the first such smog tower in the country. It’s a new technology. We have imported it from the US. The structure will suck polluted air from above and release clean air from below. It will purify 1,000 cubic metres of air per second,” Kejriwal told reporters. The smog tower has 40 fans and 5,000 filters developed by experts at the University of Minnesota which also helped design a 100-metre-high smog tower in Xian, China.
According to reports, the experimental tower in northern China has brought a noticeable improvement in air quality. A Delhi government statement said the 24-metre-high smog tower, one of biggest commercial centres in the capital, is based on a downdraft air-flow model.
Since it’s a new technology, it is being implemented on an experimental basis. Tata Projects Limited (TPL) built the smog tower with technical support from IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi, which will analyse its data. “The experts will analyse functioning of smog tower and tell us if it is effective. If it is successful, many such smog towers can be installed across Delhi. If not, we will work on some other technology… I think it will prove to be a path-breaking milestone,” Kejriwal added.
