NEW DELHI: Anand Vihar, one of the highly populated and polluted parts of the national capital, will soon get some relief from pollution in the coming months with city's tallest smog tower set to be installed in the area. The Tata Projects Limited (TPL) is installing the smog control tower near Anand Vihar Metro station to fight the vehicular pollution.
The 25-meter-high tower will clean and purify air upto 3 km. The high capacity tower, also called Adaptive Clean Air Network (ACAN), will cover Anand Vihar ISBT, railway station and the upcoming Rapid Rail Transit System (RRTS) station.
As per the Tata Projects Limited, the tower, designed by University of Minnesota will be the first in India to use cutting-edge technology. "It's a downdraft flow type which replaces the updraft technology Solar Assisted Large-Scale Cleaning System (SALSCS). The clean air can be delivered directly at ground level to benefit local residents. It is very compact requiring a land area of only 20m by 20m plus some safety and other utility area. It’s a research approach technology," said an official.
According to officials, the total air flow through this ACAN system is estimated to be 960 cubic meter per second. "With a system filtration efficiency of 90 per cent, the Clean Air Delivery Rate (CADR) will be 864 cubic meter per second. Based on Large-eddy simulations (LES) which is not specific to any site, proposed system performance is evaluated and it is found that suspended particulate matter is reduced by 72 per cent to 83 per cent at a distance of 70m from tower," they said.
The continuous operation of this tower and flow of air will also benefit the local residents and will reduce the PM2.5 level. "The major sources of pollution come from vehicular emissions, industrial combustion processes, residential biomass burning, construction activities, and garbage burning. Apart from these sources, local climatic and seasonal factors also affect the air quality of Delhi," said the official.
The construction of the tower started in August 2020. It is now installed and final finishing and trial is going on. It will be inaugurated in July.