Smog towers inefficient, will need 40k towers to tackle Delhi Pollution: Pollution Control Committee to NGT

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has informed the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that the use of smog towers is not a practical solution to combat air pollution in the national capital..The DPCC referred to reports from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) in Bombay and Delhi to highlight that within a 100-meter radius, a smog tower can only reduce pollution by 17 percent. To cover the Delhi entirely, about 40,000 such towers would be required, the pollution control body added.Given these findings, the committee has suggested accepting the results of the IIT's studies and using the already erected towers as museums for the dissemination of technical information about the control of air pollution."In case 17% reduction in 100 m radius is to be considered favourable Delhi needs more than 40,000 such towers to cover its geographic area. This cannot be a practical solution and the result of the experiment should be accepted and Smog Tower already erected may be used for dissemination of the technical information about control of air pollution as museum," the DPCC's report said..The statement was made in an action taken report filed in response to a suo motu proceeding initiated by the NGT's Principal Bench at Delhi on air pollution in the capital city.A coram of Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, judicial member Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Dr. A Senthil Vel is hearing the matter which was initiated in the wake of news reports on the deteriorating air quality in Delhi..One news report highlighted that out of the two smog towers installed at Connaught Place and Anand Vihar, the one in Anand Vihar was not operational. The DPCC said that both smog towers are not efficient efficient, as indicated by a two-year study conducted by the IIT Bombay and the IIT Delhi. .Despite that, the tower at Anand Vihar was operationalized following a Supreme Court directive on November 7, the DPCC said. The report also outlined that the capital cost of a tower is ₹25 crore, with a recurring cost of ₹10 to 15 lakh per month. Therefore, the DPCC has concluded that the use of smog towers is not justified."Both the Towers were for experiment and the experiment results are not at all encouraging to incur the heavy expenditure from the public money," the DPCC submitted..The matter will be heard next on November 20. .During the last hearing on November 8, the NGT had taken note of a report that indicated the air quality in October 2023 was "very poor" in Delhi, particularly towards the end of the month.The tribunal had then ordered the concerned authorities (including the DPCC) to file fresh action-taken reports since there was "no visible improvement in the air quality" yet in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR)..[Read November 8 order]