Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, on Monday, inaugurated India’s first smog tower in Connaught Place in Delhi.
The smog tower has been set up as a pilot project which will purify 1000 cubic metres of air per second within a 1 kilometre radius.
At the bottom of the tower, a total of 40 fans have been installed. Air will be drawn in from the top of the tower, filtered, and then discharged via the bottom fans.
CM Kejriwal stated during the inaugural ceremony that the early trends would be available within a month. More smog towers will be constructed in the national capital if the pilot project is successful, he added.
The 24-metre tall tower serves as a test bed for determining if ‘air cleaning’ may reduce particulate air pollution in urban areas. IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay, the technical advisors for the project, will collaborate on the two-year pilot research.
Another 25-meter-tall smog tower, built by the central government at Anand Vihar, is expected to become operational by August 31.
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee is the nodal agency for the smog tower at Connaught Place, while the Central Pollution Control Board is the nodal agency for the one at Anand Vihar.
The two towers will have 1,200 air filters each developed by experts at the University of Minnesota in the United States, which also helped design a 100-meter smog tower in Xian, China.
The smog towers, built at a cost of Rs 22 crore each, are estimated to reduce the concentration of PM2.5 up to 70 percent within a one-km radius.
The Delhi cabinet had approved the smog tower project in October last year.
