Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Friday visited the recently installed smog tower at Connaught Place and said that preliminary reports show it is cleaning up to 80% of the air. He said that a 16-member committee has been constituted to closely monitor the smog tower and give three reports to the government at an interval of three months each. Based on the reports, the government will decide whether to install smog towers at other places.
“It has been started with full capacity from Friday. About 10,000 filters have been installed in this smog tower, which cleans the polluted air. It has 40 fans and cleans the air in the vicinity of 1 kilometre. It will purify the air at the rate of about 1,000 cubic metres per second and release it into the atmosphere. Many sensors have been installed to monitor the performance,” Mr. Rai said.
The preliminary report, he said, showed that at around 8 a.m., the PM2.5 level was 151, which fell to 38 after being purified.
Also, the level of PM10 dropped from 166 to 41 after purification, the Minister said.Similarly, at 12.45 p.m. PM 2.5 level was 60, which has become 14 and PM 10 level was 63, which has become 15.
