Week-long test of anti-smog guns across city begins today

NEW DELHI: The Delhi government will on Monday initiate its 'anti-smog gun' campaign, which will last a week.

Throughout the year, the government will organise several campaigns to combat air pollution and to enlighten people about the hazards it has on the health of citizens.

"To deal with haze during winters, the government is mulling over using anti-smog guns to bring down pollution level in the national capital," a senior official of Delhi government said.

The anti-smog cannon will be most effective whenever smog cover in the city thickens and air quality reaches the 'severe' category.

The Delhi government will also take help from all its allied departments, including Delhi Jal Board, for the use and upkeep of this machine.

The government has also discussed the matter with environmentalists before confirming the use of the cannon.

However, some green bodies and environmentalists are critical of the move, saying that it is impossible to handle the entire city's smog and the government should not spend so heavily on such a machinery without taking any constructive plan against local sources of the air pollution.

Another section of experts, converstely, welcomed the initiation of campaigns.

Earlier, the Delhi government also installed an 'anti-pollution tower' under the Indraprastha Marg flyover near ITO to fight air pollution which reached alarming levels in the last months of 2017.

The anti-pollution tower is fitted with exhaust fans to suck in polluted air.

A machine inside the tower then removes nearly 90 per cent of the particulate matter, helping to bring down pollution levels and spews fresh air out.

Officials said that if the pilot project is successful, more such machines would be installed.

"At least six to seven more such anti-pollution towers will be set up at different locations of the city to curb air pollution, especially at busy traffic intersections.

"Once the trial is completed, the government will decide the future course of action," a government spokesman said.

Officials further said that Xian, a city in the Shaanxi province of China, too had installed such towers earlier this year and are being tested by researchers at the Institute of Earth Environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Similar efforts have also been taken up in Poland, where a smog tower is being installed at Krakow.

"If this campaign works out well then we will launch regular campaigns," said a Delhi government official.

A group of experts have planned the whole campaign and will also guide the government in the future to formulate strategies to combat pollution.