India’s first smog tower in Delhi’s Anand Vihar inaugurated!

New Delhi, Sept 8: Union Minister for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav virtually inaugurated the first functional smog tower in India at Anand Vihar in Delhi. He expressed that the pilot smog tower project will yield fruitful results and supplement the air quality improvement efforts.

 

 

 

A smog tower is a structure designed as a large or medium scale air purifier to reduce air pollution, usually by forcing the air through filters. The smog tower at Anand Vihar, with a height of over 20 metres, is of downdraft type — polluted air comes in from the top of the tower and clean air comes out of the bottom — and is intended for localised reduction in particulate matter.

 

The filtration system used in the tower has been designed by the University of Minnesota with an expected efficiency of 90 per cent. Forty fan units have been installed to provide a design airflow rate of 1,000 m3/sec. The tower has been built by Tata Projects Limited with NBCC (India) Ltd as the project management consultant.

 

 

Speaking at the event, Yadav said, “86 cities showed better air quality in 2019 in comparison to 2018, which increased to 104 cities in 2020.” Though a smog tower was inaugurated by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal in August, it has been not working properly according to the reports.

 

 

Besides, a note from the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) claimed that the one at Anand Vihar is the first "functional" smog tower. It should be noted that the smog tower inaugurated by Kerjirwal was at Connaught Place. Where this smog tower stands, there used to be New Delhi Municipal Council's nursery. Saplings to be planted elsewhere and potted plants were grown there, and the NDMC is yet to find alternative land for the nursery.