Come winter and “cannon” would be installed at the four corners of Connaught Place that will fire “mist” of water to neutralise the thick blanket of smog that engulfs Delhi every year.
The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) has floated the tender of more than Rs 3 crore for the ambitious project to contain air-pollution in Connaught Place, often called as “heart of the national Capital”. The smog fighting machine commonly referred as “Mist Spraying Cannon” will spray tiny droplets of water up to a height of 100 metres thus creating an artificial mist to which air-borne pollutants would stick and subsequently grounded.
It may be recalled that in a similar exercise to reduce air pollution, the Delhi Government had also sprayed water from an “anti-smog gun” to see whether it could make any impact in reducing pollutants from the air. The anti-smog gun put on trial by the city Government could spray atomised water (tiny droplets of water) up to a height of 50 metres, at the highly-polluted Anand Vihar area in December last year after pollution levels in the national Capital went in the severe category during winters.
Although it could not produce the desired results and the environment department started looking for other alternatives to contain air pollutants. However, officials of the NDMC said the technology would be new and improved one as compared to earlier methods used earlier by the Delhi Government. The capacity of that machine was far less and the machines that would be installed on the four corners of Connaught Place are more advanced with double the capacity to spray water in the atmosphere.
A senior NDMC official said, this move has been conceptualised to curtail air pollution during the coming winters. Explaining it further, he said that tiny droplets fired by the machine are the same as particles of PM2.5 and PM10. It combines with the dust and fine particles and takes it down to the ground.
He also informed that the tender has been floated for the same at an estimated project cost of Rs 3,06,47,040 and an earnest money of Rs 6,12,941. Meanwhile, the experts termed the move extraordinary as the city chokes every winter as cool air traps a toxic blend of pollutants, making it difficult for the people to breathe.
“The perennial pollution crisis in the city is primarily due to multiple reasons such as car exhausts, open fire (burning coal), construction dust, industrial emissions and stubble burning from adjoining States such as Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh,” the officials said.
In such a situation, the national Capital needs a permanent solution to curb the menace and the move of the NDMC is one of the steps taken in this direction, they said.
They also stressed that the mist cannon are very effective and it has been proved as China has successfully experimented it after blanketed by thick smog every year.