The Delhi government has finished installation of filters in the smog tower in Connaught Place, which was inaugurated last month. Also, a team from IIT Bombay has started a study on the impact of the tower on the air quality, officials said.
“The filters are now in place and IIT Bombay has started the two-year study. But data generation will take a little more time as we are not operating the fans right now since we are waiting for the humidity to come down,” an official told The Hindu .
The smog tower is a 24-metre-high structure fitted with fans and air filters and it will draw in polluted air from the top and release purified air near the ground through fans fitted on sides.
The tower has 40 big fans and 5,000 filters to clean the air and the fans suck in air, which will be cleaned as it passes through the filters.
The tower was inaugurated by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on August 23.
After the inauguration, the tower is yet to be fully functional as authorities were waiting for monsoon to be over to install the filters and run the fans. Officials delayed the installation of filters as there could be fungal growth in the filter due to high moisture during the monsoon.
“The fungal growth will be more if we use the fans during monsoons as the moisture is more and it will be caught by the filters,” the official said.
In January 2020, the Supreme Court had asked the Delhi government to set up the tower on a pilot basis.
“There is about a 90% reduction in the PM particles that enter and leave the tower in test runs. But how much effect it will have at a distance from the tower will be known only after the IIT study,” another official said.
