Centre okays pilot smog tower in Delhi

NEWDELHI: The environment ministry has approved a pilot demonstration for a smog tower in Delhi, minister of state for environment Babul Supriyo said in the Lok Sabha on Friday.

The project would cost about Rs 18 to 20 crore and its impact zone is likely to be only 700 metres to 1 km in the downwind direction, according to senior environment ministry officials who didn’t want to be named.

Supriyo, in his reply in the Lok Sabha, said Environment Protection Charge funds would be utilised for the project.

In 2016, the Supreme Court had directed all manufacturers and dealers of Delhi-ncr selling diesel cars with engine capacity of 2000 cc and above to pay 1% of ex-showroom price of the vehicle as environment protection charge.

“A proposal titled Project for Demonstrating the Feasibility of Reducing Air Pollution Exposure in Urban Area by Using Large Scale Cleaning System was submitted by Indian Institute of

Technology Bombay (IITB) for control of air pollution under EPC (Environment Protection Charge) funds, and the project aims to develop and deploy large -scale air purifying system named Adaptive Clean Air Network (ACAN),” minister of state for environment said.

The minister said the ministry had already tried several technologies for mitigation of air pollution, which includes deployment and evaluation of air purification units for pollution abatement at traffic junctions in Delhi, control of dust emissions using dust suppressant and multiple antenna high-density ion generator for pollution control.

“The capital cost of installing the IIT-B smog tower will be at least Rs 13 crore and another Rs 7 to 8 crore will be needed to run it for two years,” the official added.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court had also asked the government to take a concrete decision on having smog towers within 10 days in Delhi-national Capital Region to combat pollution.

The direction came after pollution levels in Delhi peaked to a three-year high.