Delhi Pollution: Supreme Court Asks Centre To Prepare Plan For Installation Of Air Purifying Towers

As Delhi and surrounding areas continued to suffer from deteriorating air quality, Supreme Court has asked Centre to come up with a roadmap for installing air-purifying towers in national capital. The top court on Friday pulled over Centre over the Delhi air pollution and gave the government seven days to come up with a "definite reply" on-air cleaning system for the city.

"Delhi is suffering badly. It is almost 600 AQI even today. How do people breathe," the court asked, directing authorities to use to "best technology in the world" to clean air.

China has experimented with installing giant outdoor air purifiers or smog-free towers in its polluted cities. A seven-metre high anti-smog tower, designed by Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde, was the first to be put up in an art district in Beijing in 2016. A larger, skyscraper-sized smog-tower was also built in Xi'an, the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi province, another heavily polluted city, the same year. Another outdoor air purifier, designed by Roosegaarde, has opened at Pyeong-chon Central Park in Anyang, South Korea this year.

During the hearing, Central government snubbed Delhi's odd-even scheme, saying that car rationing has "hardly helped". On the other hand, the AAP government dubbed stubble burning as the real culprit of Delhi's air quality. They also refuted the Centre's claims and said that odd-even helps improving air quality. Delhi govt told Supreme Court that pollution level gets reduced by 5-15 per cent due to the Odd-Even scheme and that the result will be better if no exemption is given under the scheme.

Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said a final call on extending the odd-even scheme would be taken on Monday as the air quality is expected to improve in the next two-three days. "We do not want people to undergo unnecessary inconvenience," Kejriwal said at a press conference.