Delhi became the first city in the country on Tuesday to get a smog tower for reducing air pollution. 

The smog tower which uses American technology has been installed at Anand Vihar in the capital. It has a height of over 20 metres and is of “downdraft type,” in which polluted air comes in from the top of the tower and clean air comes out of the bottom. The filters in the tower remove particulate matter from the air which reduces pollution in the local area. 

The filtration system used in the tower has been designed by the University of Minnesota with an expected efficiency of 90%. As many as 40 fan units have been installed to provide a design airflow rate of 1000 m3/sec. The tower has been built by Tata Projects Limited with NBCC (India) Ltd. as the project management consultant.

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The smog tower was remotely inaugurated by Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav at an event in New Delhi to mark the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies. Senior WHO and German embassy officials were present on the occasion.

The event also witnessed the launch of a portal named “PRANA” – Portal for Regulation of Air-pollution in Non-Attainment cities under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP).

The portal (prana.cpcb.gov.in) will support tracking of physical as well as financial status of city air action plan implementation and disseminate information on air quality to public.

So far, 375.44 crores have been released to 114 cities in the country during financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21 for initiating action under city action plan. Another Rs 4400 cores have been released to 42 cities with million plus population as per recommendations of 15th Finance Commission report for 2020-21. This is in addition to funds available through various Central and State government schemes.