Delhi luxury hotels offer a breath of fresh air

Clean air is the new offering at the capital’s top luxury hotels, though without a charge.

The next time you enter the capital’s popular fivestar hotel, ITC Maurya, you will be greeted by a monitor showing the real-time PM2.5, or particulate matter 2.5 level, (pollutants in the air) inside and outside the hotel. The air cleaning system will become operational around Christmas and will cover the hotel’s 438 rooms.

The Taj Diplomatic Enclave, its neighbour, has also placed natural oxygen emitters and air purifiers. The hotel has reduced the use of diesel generators. The Oberoi Delhi, ready to reopen next month after a seven-quarter-long renovation, said the renovated property has been equipped with modern clean-air technology, which promises air quality on a par with global standards.

The National Capital Region has been battling increasing pollution levels for a couple of years. The city’s PM2.5 level has breached the prescribed standards by several times.

“Travellers, especially those coming from overseas, are increasingly getting concerned about the air quality in the city,” said Gaurav Pokhariyal, area director and general manager at Taj Diplomatic Enclave. “All our properties across the country follow stringent pollution control measures, which have further been strengthened given the current situation in the National Capital Region.”

ITC Hotels’ General Manager (technical and sustainability) H C Vinayaka said the quality of indoor air at ITC Maurya would meet World Health Organization standard, which is 50 per cent better than the Indian standard (60 microgram per m3 for PM2.5). “Indian standard is good. But as we have an international clientele, we decided to go for even stringent norms,” he said.

Vinayaka did not share the investment details of the clean-air project. But the facilities are estimated to have cost about ~12 crore and it would require another ~2-3 crore to maintain and operate these. The data of air quality on ITC Maurya’s monitor would be validated by third-party auditors.

ITC Hotels, on its part, plans to execute the cleanair project in four more hotels of North India — Sheraton (New Delhi), ITC Grand Bharat (near Gurugram), ITC Mughal (Agra) and ITC Rajputana (Jaipur) — by next December. Another ~40 crore might be invested into this project. The project has been executed by Stockholm-headquartered Camfil, said Vinayaka. The maker of clean-air products would upgrade the air handling units with a special mechanism to ensure perfect sealing to avoid leaks and would install its patented technology air cleaners in each unit. The standalone air cleaners would do a twostage filtration that would also remove 99.95 per cent of more dangerous ultra-fine particles, besides filtering out PM2.5.