India builds 25m high 'smog tower' to tackle air pollution crisis

Dark Sorrow

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A 25-metre “smog tower” has been constructed in New Delhi in an attempt to improve the city’s air quality.

In 2020, the World Air Quality Report found that New Delhi was the most polluted capital in the world for the third year in a row. The concentration of PM 2.5 particles is regularly more than 20 times more than safe limits with thousands of deaths every year thought to be linked to poor air quality.

These microscopic particles are dangerous because they can get deep into our lungs, irritating and damaging our respiratory systems. They have been linked to health effects such as asthma, lung cancer and heart disease.


Located in Connaught Place, a busy shopping and finance hub in the centre of the city, the tower is made up of 40 giant fans. These fans pump 1,000 cubic metres of air per second through filters with the aim of halving the amount of PM 2.5 particles within a 1km radius of the tower.

बधाई दिल्ली। प्रदूषण के ख़िलाफ़ युद्ध में दिल्ली में देश के पहले स्मॉग टावर की शुरुआत की। अमेरिकी तकनीक से बना ये स्मॉग टावर हवा में प्रदूषण की मात्रा को कम करेगा।

पायलट आधार पर शुरू हुए इस प्रोजेक्ट के नतीजे बेहतर रहे तो पूरी दिल्ली में ऐसे और स्मॉग टावर लगाए जाएंगे। pic.twitter.com/gqgh0MzyuJ
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 23, 2021
“In the war against pollution, the country’s first smog tower has been established in Delhi,” said Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal in a Twitter post.

“If the results of this pilot project are good, then more such smog towers will be installed all over Delhi.”

Are ‘smog towers’ the answer to New Delhi’s pollution problem?
Scientists at IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi will be assessing what impact the tower actually has on pollution in the area as part of a two-year study. This information will help the city to decide if building more smog towers will help improve air quality.

Experts at the University of Minnesota who designed the technology say that it could “curb the PM 2.5 concentration by about 50 per cent, giving relief to residents and saving several hundred thousand lives” - if New Delhi builds 100 towers in the next few years.

Constructing the tower cost $2 million (€1.7m) and installing enough to clean the city’s air would come at a high price. It is money that critics argue could be better spent preventing pollution, but the scientists say they were never meant to be a permanent answer to New Delhi’s problem.

"Installing smog towers has never been, and will never be a solution," Sunil Dahiya, an analyst with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, told AFP.

"If we really, really want to address pollution, it has to be addressed at the source.”

 

Dark Sorrow

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Country’s first smog tower in Delhi’s Connaught Place, cost Rs 20 crore

Delhi smog tower: Trends from the pilot study to assess the reduction of particulate air pollution in urban areas through 'air cleaning' could be available in around a month, CM Arvind Kejriwal said.

1629947133324.png


Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated on Monday the country’s first ‘smog tower,’ an experimental set up worth Rs 20 crore to purify air in a 1-km radius around the structure, at a rate of around 1,000 cubic metres of air per second.

Terming the tower “experimental”, Kejriwal said its data will be analysed to determine its efficacy. Smog towers can be raised in other parts of the city as well, if a pilot study conducted on the new one set up at Connaught place provides favourable results, he said.


The tower, located behind the Shivaji Stadium Metro station in Connaught Place, was raised at a height of 24.2 metres. The total project cost, including two years of operational cost, is around Rs 20 crore, according to a senior official of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). The DPCC is the nodal agency for the tower, while NBCC is the project management consultancy and the executing agency was Tata Projects Limited.

The tower constitutes a pilot study to assess the reduction of particulate air pollution in urban areas through ‘air cleaning’. The two-year pilot study will be carried out by IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay, technical advisors for the project. The institutions will monitor the impact of the tower on PM2.5 and the functioning of the tower under different weather conditions.


Trends from the pilot study could be available in around a month, Kejriwal said. If the project is not successful, new techniques will have to be attempted, he added.


Going by the project description, the tower can filter around 1,000 cubic metres of air per second. It is expected to have an impact on a 1 km radius from the centre of the tower.


A total of 40 fans have been installed at the bottom of the tower — air will be sucked in from the top, filtered and released through the fans at the bottom. The tower comprises 5,000 filters. These are electrostatic air filters that can filter out microparticles, including those that constitute smoke, household dust and pollen, according to the project description. A Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system has been installed in the tower to collect data and monitor its functioning.


Construction workers who were at the inauguration said they had been working on the tower for about a year and a half. While work had stalled during the first Covid-related lockdown, it continued through the second lockdown, they said.


A similar tower is being set up at Anand Vihar, work on which is nearly complete.

Critics of the project point out that localised impact at a high cost would not be useful in tackling Delhi’s air pollution issues. Dipankar Saha, former additional director, CPCB, who was also head of the air quality monitoring division in Delhi, said that the tower might dilute emissions generated at the ground level, though it may not be significant.


“The tower is localised. How many such installations are required for Delhi at such a high investment cost? In tropical places, it’s not possible to suck dust out of the air, since it’s such a huge task. In winter, the dust layer stands at around 800 metres from ground level,” he said. Emission control at the ground level is the only feasible way to handle air pollution.”

Gautam Gambhir, BJP’s MP from East Delhi, had set up a 20 feet tall air purifying tower in Lajpat Nagar, near the central market, in January last year, in collaboration with the traders’ association of Lajpat Nagar. It functions with air filters. Ashwani Marwah, general secretary of the traders’ association, said that the tower is functioning and its operational cost is being borne by the association. A display board on top of the tower shows AQI to gauge its impact, he added.

 

HariPrasad-1

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View attachment 106758

A 25-metre “smog tower” has been constructed in New Delhi in an attempt to improve the city’s air quality.

In 2020, the World Air Quality Report found that New Delhi was the most polluted capital in the world for the third year in a row. The concentration of PM 2.5 particles is regularly more than 20 times more than safe limits with thousands of deaths every year thought to be linked to poor air quality.

These microscopic particles are dangerous because they can get deep into our lungs, irritating and damaging our respiratory systems. They have been linked to health effects such as asthma, lung cancer and heart disease.


Located in Connaught Place, a busy shopping and finance hub in the centre of the city, the tower is made up of 40 giant fans. These fans pump 1,000 cubic metres of air per second through filters with the aim of halving the amount of PM 2.5 particles within a 1km radius of the tower.


“In the war against pollution, the country’s first smog tower has been established in Delhi,” said Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal in a Twitter post.

“If the results of this pilot project are good, then more such smog towers will be installed all over Delhi.”

Are ‘smog towers’ the answer to New Delhi’s pollution problem?
Scientists at IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi will be assessing what impact the tower actually has on pollution in the area as part of a two-year study. This information will help the city to decide if building more smog towers will help improve air quality.

Experts at the University of Minnesota who designed the technology say that it could “curb the PM 2.5 concentration by about 50 per cent, giving relief to residents and saving several hundred thousand lives” - if New Delhi builds 100 towers in the next few years.

Constructing the tower cost $2 million (€1.7m) and installing enough to clean the city’s air would come at a high price. It is money that critics argue could be better spent preventing pollution, but the scientists say they were never meant to be a permanent answer to New Delhi’s problem.

"Installing smog towers has never been, and will never be a solution," Sunil Dahiya, an analyst with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, told AFP.

"If we really, really want to address pollution, it has to be addressed at the source.”

Plant trees instead.
 

SKC

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Country’s first smog tower in Delhi’s Connaught Place, cost Rs 20 crore

Delhi smog tower: Trends from the pilot study to assess the reduction of particulate air pollution in urban areas through 'air cleaning' could be available in around a month, CM Arvind Kejriwal said.

View attachment 106759

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated on Monday the country’s first ‘smog tower,’ an experimental set up worth Rs 20 crore to purify air in a 1-km radius around the structure, at a rate of around 1,000 cubic metres of air per second.

Terming the tower “experimental”, Kejriwal said its data will be analysed to determine its efficacy. Smog towers can be raised in other parts of the city as well, if a pilot study conducted on the new one set up at Connaught place provides favourable results, he said.


The tower, located behind the Shivaji Stadium Metro station in Connaught Place, was raised at a height of 24.2 metres. The total project cost, including two years of operational cost, is around Rs 20 crore, according to a senior official of the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). The DPCC is the nodal agency for the tower, while NBCC is the project management consultancy and the executing agency was Tata Projects Limited.

The tower constitutes a pilot study to assess the reduction of particulate air pollution in urban areas through ‘air cleaning’. The two-year pilot study will be carried out by IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay, technical advisors for the project. The institutions will monitor the impact of the tower on PM2.5 and the functioning of the tower under different weather conditions.


Trends from the pilot study could be available in around a month, Kejriwal said. If the project is not successful, new techniques will have to be attempted, he added.


Going by the project description, the tower can filter around 1,000 cubic metres of air per second. It is expected to have an impact on a 1 km radius from the centre of the tower.


A total of 40 fans have been installed at the bottom of the tower — air will be sucked in from the top, filtered and released through the fans at the bottom. The tower comprises 5,000 filters. These are electrostatic air filters that can filter out microparticles, including those that constitute smoke, household dust and pollen, according to the project description. A Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system has been installed in the tower to collect data and monitor its functioning.


Construction workers who were at the inauguration said they had been working on the tower for about a year and a half. While work had stalled during the first Covid-related lockdown, it continued through the second lockdown, they said.


A similar tower is being set up at Anand Vihar, work on which is nearly complete.

Critics of the project point out that localised impact at a high cost would not be useful in tackling Delhi’s air pollution issues. Dipankar Saha, former additional director, CPCB, who was also head of the air quality monitoring division in Delhi, said that the tower might dilute emissions generated at the ground level, though it may not be significant.


“The tower is localised. How many such installations are required for Delhi at such a high investment cost? In tropical places, it’s not possible to suck dust out of the air, since it’s such a huge task. In winter, the dust layer stands at around 800 metres from ground level,” he said. Emission control at the ground level is the only feasible way to handle air pollution.”

Gautam Gambhir, BJP’s MP from East Delhi, had set up a 20 feet tall air purifying tower in Lajpat Nagar, near the central market, in January last year, in collaboration with the traders’ association of Lajpat Nagar. It functions with air filters. Ashwani Marwah, general secretary of the traders’ association, said that the tower is functioning and its operational cost is being borne by the association. A display board on top of the tower shows AQI to gauge its impact, he added.

One man Gambhir alone doing what whole Delhi Govt is able to do.
He even managed to reduce the Ghazipur or the other waste dump height by several feets in one year.
And these clowns managed to make one tower.
 

SKC

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Plant trees instead.
Planting trees is not the solution. We have more than enough Green cover in NCR.

The pollution in Delhi is basically particulate matter due to large scale ongoing Infra projects. We simply cant help with it for next 1 decade.
We need to build the cities and once infra projects reaches their saturation then pollution will come down automatically.
 

hit&run

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Planting trees is not the solution. We have more than enough Green cover in NCR.

The pollution in Delhi is basically particulate matter due to large scale ongoing Infra projects. We simply cant help with it for next 1 decade.
We need to build the cities and once infra projects reaches their saturation then pollution will come down automatically.
Right.
There are construction and construction related activities codes to follow. But seems like no one follows them.
 

Indx TechStyle

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Right.
There are construction and construction related activities codes to follow. But seems like no one follows them.
TBH, if you are going to follow every damn standard, code and non-vital engineering practices, projects won't go as fast they are going.
 

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