New Delhi: Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai wrote to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday, seeking the suspension of Delhi Pollution Control Committee chairman Ashwani Kumar for “arbitrarily halting” the operation of a large smog tower installed at Connaught Place two years ago to mitigate air pollution.
In the letter to Kejriwal, Rai also sought disciplinary action against the project in-charge, Anwar Ali, whom the minister accused of changing his stance on the smog tower’s effectiveness under pressure from Kumar.
Rai mentioned that two smog towers were installed in Delhi — at Connaught Place under DPCC and at Anand Vihar under the Central Pollution Control Board — following the Supreme Court’s directions.
Kumar, who assumed the role of DPCC chairman in December, stopped the release of funds to IIT-Bombay and other agencies working on the project without informing the government, which Rai considered a contempt of court.
Chief Minister Kejriwal had inaugurated the more-than-24-metre-high smog tower at Connaught Place on August 23, 2021. The city government had formed a team of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay to study its impact over two years.
Sharing the smog tower’s data, Rai had said last year that the giant air purifier could reduce air pollution by 70 to 80 per cent within a radius of 50 metres and by 15 to 20 per cent up to 300 metres.
Officials had previously said that the smog tower, built at a cost of Rs 20 crore, could purify the air in a one-kilometer radius at a rate of around 1,000 cubic metres per second.
The smog tower has 40 large fans that draw air from the top of a special canopy structure and release clean air below.