Due to high pollution in city, a team of Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) officials restarted the non-functional anti-smog tower in Connaught Place on Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court ordered the administration to immediately operationalise the tower, as reported by HindustanTimes.

A member of the team said that the plant has been re-operationalized as per the direction of the Supreme Court and the clean-up work of equipment and rooms was being carried out. “The facility was shut down in April. All the fans are now functional and trials are being carried out. We will gradually increase the speed of fans,” the official said.

The DPCC did not immediately respond to requests for a comment.

Delhi’s air quality index has been recorded in severe category with an air quality index of 425 being recorded at 1 pm by the Central Pollution Control Board on Wednesday.

Even today in Delhi inspite of the rain,

On Tuesday, the bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia said, “We want this tower to be working,” and added, “We direct the chairperson of DPCC to remain personally present in court on the next date.” The court, while dealing with the issue of air pollution in Delhi, was informed by amicus curiae and senior advocate Aparajita Singh that the smog tower, inaugurated in August 2021, was not operational for some time. The court noted that disciplinary action has also been proposed against the chairman of DPCC.

As DPCC officials were trying to operationalize the tower on Wednesday morning, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai recalled that the pollution control body hadn’t acted on the government’s request to do the same.

Experts have long argued that smog towers are not a long-term solution to Delhi’s air pollution problem, and that not only would people have to remain extremely close to the smog tower to breathe clean air, but thousands of such smog towers would have to be installed all across the city to bring about a change in air quality.