On Tuesday, Bhupender Yadav, the Union Minister for environment forest and climate change inaugurated the smog tower in Anand vihar in Delhi virtually. Bhupendra Yadav further said that the ministry will note each and every result so that they can determine whether this project will need scaling up in the future.
A smog tower is used to purify the air and its main aim is to reduce air pollution. This structure is designed on a large or a medium scale and it can be said that this is a large or medium air purifier that purifies the air by forcing the air through filters. The smog tower which is inaugurated at Anand vihar is at a height of 20 meters, and this smog tower is off downdraft type, which means this smog tower purifies the air in such a way that the polluted are comes into the tower from the top of the tower and then it will be purified and the final clean air will flow out of the bottom. The intention of the smog tower is to localize reduction in particulate matter. Tata projects limited has built this tower along with a collaboration of NBCC India limited as a project management consultant. And the University of Minnesota has designed this filtration system which is used in the tower and it has expected 90% efficiency. The smog tower is installed with 40 fan units. It will provide an airflow rate of 1000 m3/sec.
A similar smog tower was inaugurated in Connaught place in Delhi 2 weeks ago. But it is not fully functional as the filters are not installed in the smog tower yet. According to some reports, It is known that this smog tower at Connaught place will be in operation from September 15 onwards. It will be fully operational once the rain ceases. So it can be said that this smog tower in Anand vihar is India’s first functional smog tower.
It is also expected that the John Kerry US special presidential and wife for climate will visit next week, and the COP26 in Glasgow later this year. So India’s ministry for environment, forest, and climate change has taken many initiatives for purifying the air and controlling air pollution.
On Tuesday, Bhupendra Yadav also added that Rs. 375.44 crores have been released to 114 cities by marking the second International day of clean air for blue skies. This huge release has been done during the year 2019-20 and 2020 – 21 to take more steps for the city action plan. As per the recommendations of the 15th finance commission report additional Rs. 4400 crore has been released to around 42 cities for the financial year 2020-21. Bhupendra Yadav also said that this is included in funds that are available through various State Government and Central government schemes.
Talking about the air quality which was noted a few years, Yadav said that in comparison to 2018 86 cities showed better air quality in 2019, and in 2020 the number of cities increased to 104.
In the event, Bhupendra Yadav also announced about the portal for regulation of air pollution or it can be said as “Prana” in NAC (non-attainment cities), that is the cities which should when not able to meet the national air quality standards in the past five years. This “Prana” is under the national clean air program. Target has been kept by the environment ministry and Central pollution control board to gain a reduction of 20 to 30% in particulate matter concentrations in overall India by the year 2024.
This portal will also track the physical and financial status of the city air action plan implementation and will also spread information about the air quality to the people living in that area.
