Grabbing yet another opportunity to hog credit for work done by others, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal declared that his government on Monday inaugurated the city’s first ‘smog tower’ to curb the menace of pollution.
Kejriwal claimed that the ‘smog tower’ is not just the first one in Delhi, but the first such in the whole country.
बधाई दिल्ली। प्रदूषण के ख़िलाफ़ युद्ध में दिल्ली में देश के पहले स्मॉग टावर की शुरुआत की। अमेरिकी तकनीक से बना ये स्मॉग टावर हवा में प्रदूषण की मात्रा को कम करेगा।
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 23, 2021
पायलट आधार पर शुरू हुए इस प्रोजेक्ट के नतीजे बेहतर रहे तो पूरी दिल्ली में ऐसे और स्मॉग टावर लगाए जाएंगे। pic.twitter.com/gqgh0MzyuJ
Only, this is not the first ‘smog tower’ installed in the national capital. East Delhi MP and former cricketer Gautam Gambhir in January 2020 had installed and inaugurated a first-of-its-kind giant air purifier in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar market. In the month of November, the BJP MP had installed two more such air purifies taking the total count to three.
काम दिखता है, झूठ दिखाना पड़ता है। पूर्वी दिल्ली का तीसरा Air Purifier!
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) November 22, 2020
साफ़ हवा सबका हक़! pic.twitter.com/ExyDzzEJxA
Gambhir on January 10, 2020, just five days after inaugurating the first smog tower had shared the results in a Tweet. “Intent combined with action will always yield results! Sharing initial readings of the prototype air purifier installed last week!” he Tweeted.
Intent combined with action will always yield results! Sharing initial readings of the prototype air purifier installed last week! pic.twitter.com/qIbRETzJs1
— Gautam Gambhir (@GautamGambhir) January 10, 2020
Just a year and eight months later, Kejriwal has claimed to inaugurate allegedly the first smog tower at Baba Kharak Singh Marg in the Connaught Place area. Sharing the same, the Delhi CM tweeted, “Congratulations Delhi. In the war against pollution, the country’s first smog tower has been started in Delhi. This smog tower made using American technology will reduce the amount of pollution in the air. If the results of this project started on pilot basis are good then more such smog towers will be installed all over Delhi.”
बधाई दिल्ली। प्रदूषण के ख़िलाफ़ युद्ध में दिल्ली में देश के पहले स्मॉग टावर की शुरुआत की। अमेरिकी तकनीक से बना ये स्मॉग टावर हवा में प्रदूषण की मात्रा को कम करेगा।
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) August 23, 2021
पायलट आधार पर शुरू हुए इस प्रोजेक्ट के नतीजे बेहतर रहे तो पूरी दिल्ली में ऐसे और स्मॉग टावर लगाए जाएंगे। pic.twitter.com/gqgh0MzyuJ
The tower will reportedly purify 1,000 cubic meters of air per second within a radius of around 1 km. In a media interaction post the inauguration, Kejriwal said, “The tower has been set up as a pilot project and initial trends will be available within a month.”
He also informed that a control room has been set up at the site to monitor its operations. Additionally, experts will undertake a study to ascertain the effectiveness of the air purifier.
The tower funded by the Delhi government has been built at a cost of Rs 20 crore.
On the other hand, the air purifier installed by Gambhir in association with Traders’ Association Lajpat Nagar (TALN) cost around Rs 7 lakhs, suggest reports. While the machine was funded by Gautam Gambhir Foundation, the maintenance which costs around Rs 30,000 per month is being borne by the TALN.
The national capital is one of the most polluted cities of the nation and the government has done very little to curb the nuisance caused by air pollution.
