Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Bhupender Yadav virtually inaugurated the first functional smog tower in India at Anand Vihar in Delhi. He said the ministry would keep a close eye on the results to determine whether such projects will need to be upgraded in the future.
A smog tower is a structure designed as a large or medium scale air purifier to reduce air pollution, usually by forcing the air through filters. The smog tower at Anand Vihar, with a height of over 20 metres, is of downdraft type — polluted air comes in from the top of the tower and clean air comes out of the bottom — and is intended for localised reduction in particulate matter.
Speaking at an event, Yadav said, “86 cities showed better air quality in 2019 in comparison to 2018, which increased to 104 cities in 2020.”
Yadav also launched the Portal for Regulation of Air-pollution or ‘Prana’, in non-attainment cities (NAC) — those which failed to meet national air quality standards over a five-year period — under the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP). The environment ministry and Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) have a target to achieve 20-30 per cent reduction in particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5) concentrations across the country by 2024.
The portal will support tracking of physical as well as financial status of city air action plan implementation, and disseminate information on air quality to the public.
Yadav also attended the first India–Japan High Level Policy Dialogue with Japanese Environment Minister Koizumi Shinjiro. The leaders discussed issues related to, inter alia, air pollution, sustainable technologies and transport, climate change, marine litter, fluorocarbons and COP-26.
Yadav said India and Japan are exploring strengthening bilateral cooperation, especially on circular economy and resource efficiency, low carbon technology, green hydrogen, etc.