New Delhi: Chairman of the Minister of Arvind Kejriwal on Monday inaugurated the first Smog Tower in India in the Connaught Place area.
The structure is more than 20 meters high, it has been set to improve air quality within a radius of about 1 km.
“To fight pollution, we have installed the first Indian Asmog Tower in Delhi today.
It can help clean the air within one kilometer.
It has been installed based on experiments and data from IT will be analyzed by IIT-Delhi and IIT-Bombay,” Kejriwal said after The inauguration event.
The Smog Tower will purify 1,000 cubic meters of air per second.
A two-year pilot study will be carried out to ensure the effectiveness of the Smog Tower, an official said.
The control room has been set on the site to monitor the Smog Tower operation.
Pandemic Covid-19 delayed the construction work of the Smog Tower.
The Delhi Cabinet has approved the pilot project in October last year.
The other 25-meter smoke tower, which was built by the central government in Anand Vihar, is expected to operate on August 31, the Pollution Control Board official said (CPCB).
Tata Projects Limited (TPL) is building two Asmog towers with technical support from IIT-Bombay, which, working with IIT-Delhi, will validate their performance.
NBCC India Ltd.
has been appointed as a project management consultant.
CPCB is a nodal agent for towers in Anand Vihar, while the Delhi pollution control committee is a nodal body for the Connaught Place.
Both towers have 1,200 air filters, each developed by experts at the University of Minnesota in the United States – which also helped design the Smog 100 meter-high tower in Xian, China.
The smoke tower, each built at a cost of Rs 22 Crore, is estimated to reduce the concentration of PM2.5 to 70 percent in a 1 km radius around them.
The Supreme Court in January last year directed the central government to build a smoke tower to reduce pollution in Anand Vihar, and the Delhi government to install other structures at Connaught Place in three months.
In August, the Apex Court has reprimanded the center and state government to lose deadlines to complete the construction of two Asmog towers.
(With input from PTI)