Union Minister of Heavy Industries Mahendra Nath Pandey inaugurated the state-of-the-art, prototype Air Pollution Control Tower (APCT) in Noida on Wednesday.

The tower has been set up on the traffic island between the DND flyway and the slip road to Noida Expressway as pollution is high in this area due to the high volume of traffic on the DND and the Noida expressway.

Inaugurating the APCT, the Minister said that air pollution in urban areas especially National Capital Region (NCR) regions, remains a serious problem, adversely affecting the health and quality of life of citizens. He further stated that efforts are being made to eliminate the pollution at the source itself. Along with this, we should also consider options to reduce air pollution.

Based on the success of this project, a grid of such APCTs can be installed in NCR to improve the ambient air quality of the city.

Expressing happiness at the initiative of BHEL and Noida administration to get rid of the air pollution, Pandey said that air pollution can be tackled by such active collaboration between industry and administration and such collaborations are the need of the hour. He congratulated the BHEL’s corporate R&D engineers who designed the APCT.

Pandey also mentioned that this APCT is completely indigenous which will contribute to the success of the ‘Make in India’’ campaign of the Prime Minister. Talking about the low cost of APCT, the Minister called upon the engineers to further improve this product and reduce its cost further so that such towers can be installed where there is a problem of pollution.

NCR is plagued with the problem of air pollution especially in the winter months, with the air quality index deteriorating to hazardous levels, which is a matter of serious concern for the health of the local population.

Designed and developed by BHEL’s Corporate R&D division, manufactured at its HEEP Haridwar plant, and installed by Power Sector [NR] Noida, the APCT operates by pulling polluted air through its base and capturing the particulate matter in filters installed in the tower. Clean air is then released from the top of the tower.

The captured particulate matter gets collected in the hopper at the bottom of the APCT for periodic removal for disposal. BHEL’s Pollution Control Research Institute, Haridwar will carry out the performance study of the APCT for one year.

On the occasion, Minister of State for Power and Heavy Industries Krishan pal Gujar, Mahesh Sharma, MP, Lok Sabha and former Union Minister, Surendra Singh Nagar, MP, Rajya Sabha. Pankaj Singh, MLA, Noida and Arun Goel, Secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries. Nalin Shinghal, Chairman & Managing Director, BHEL, Directors on the Board of BHEL, and other senior officials of the Ministry of Heavy Industries, Noida Authority, and BHEL were also present.