Smog tower to work at full capacity Oct. 1: Rai
New Delhi, Sept. 22: Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said the trial of the smog tower at Connaught Place has been completed and it will start working at full capacity from October 1. He also said a team of scientists from IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi has been constituted to monitor its working. An official said the team will have five experts from IIT-Bombay and one from IIT-Delhi to study the impact of the `20-crore air purifier in central Delhi.
“The trial of the smog tower has been completed. It will be working at full capacity from October 1,” the environment minister tweeted.
The over 24-meter-high structure was inaugurated by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on August 23. The smog tower has 40 fans and 10,000 filters developed by experts at the University of Minnesota which also helped design a 100-metrehigh smog tower in Xian, China.
“The experts will analyse the functioning of the smog tower and tell us
if it is effective. If it is successful, many such smog towers can be installed across Delhi. If not, we will work on some other technology... I think it will prove to be a pathbreaking milestone,” Kejriwal had said.
Smog towers that could come up in Delhi in the future will be at least three times cheaper than the one at Connaught Place, environment department officials said on Wednesday.
Among other things, the two-year study by the experts will focus on developing design parameters for a cost-effective indigenous smog tower, according to the officials.
The experts will try to ascertain the area of influence and the optimum fan speed for best results at minimum costs, an official said.
“The study will also focus on reducing the size of the structure, minimising energy consumption, and developing design parameters and specifications for low-cost indigenous filters and fans. The filters imported from the US are really expensive,” he said.
“The Indian version of this smog tower will be at least three times cheaper, according to experts from IITs,” the official said.
The smog tower at Baba Kharak Singh Marg has 5,000 coarse filters and as many fine filters which can capture particulate matter as small as 0.3 microns.
“Thus, it can also ascertain the concentration of particles smaller than PM2.5,” another official said.
The smog tower can purify air in a one-km radius around the structure, at a rate of around 1,000 cubic metres per second.