Outdoor air purifier project gathers dust
While the Delhi government is considering installing outdoor air purifiers at traffic intersections, it turns out that the last time the city experimented with such a project, it was left hanging for five years. The New Delhi Municipal Council had set up an air filtering station in 2010, before the Commonwealth Games. The purifier was installed outside Palika Bazaar in Connaught Place free of cost by a company called System Life on March 6, 2010. The machine cleaned 10,000 cubic metres of air every hour for about 18 months. The system worked by cleaning polluted air of particulate matter and gases with fabric filters, active carbon cartridges and electrostatic filters. According to System Life India director Dhruv Chanana, the machine was operational till October 18, 2011, before being removed. “It was removed because no one wanted to accept the need to clean the air,” said Mr. Chanana, adding that had the NDMC gone ahead with more such purifiers, the pollution levels in the area ...