CP smog tower will run at full capacity from Oct 1: Gopal Rai

New Delhi: With winter and Delhi's annual pollution season rolling in, Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said the trial of the smog tower at Connaught Place had been completed and that it will start working at full capacity from October 1.

He also said a team of scientists from IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi has been constituted to monitor its workings while an official of the department confirmed that the team will have five experts from IIT-Bombay and one from IIT-Delhi.

"The trial of the smog tower has been completed. It will be working at full capacity from October 1," the environment minister tweeted. The over 24-meter-high structure was inaugurated by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on August 23.

The smog tower has 40 fans and 10,000 filters developed by experts at the University of Minnesota which also helped design a 100-metre-high smog tower in Xian, China.

Significantly, officials in the environment department of the Delhi government have said that smog towers in the future will be at least three times cheaper than the one at CP, for which Rs 20 crore was spent.

Among other things, the two-year study by the six experts from IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi will focus on developing design parameters for a cost-effective indigenous smog tower, according to the officials.

The experts will try to ascertain the area of influence and the optimum fan speed for best results at minimum costs, an official said.

"The study will also focus on reducing the size of the structure, minimising energy consumption, and developing design parameters and specifications for low-cost indigenous filters and fans. The filters imported from the US are really expensive," he said.

"The Indian version of this smog tower will be at least three times cheaper, according to experts from IITs," the official said.